Cub Scouts Uniform

This week, my son came home from the neighbors house with the shirt for his uniform. We hadn't had the money to go get it, but I had really wanted to. So anyway, I was extremely excited when he came home with it!

I went to the Scout shop to pick up a couple patches that he was missing as well as the belt and the scarf.

Thursday, I sewed the patches on so we could go start selling popcorn door to door.

Both my boy and me had a blast selling. He was so cute. Only one person that was home turned him down, and that was because he had already bought popcorn from a guy who had the form at his work.

Of course, who could turn down such a cutie?

I know I couldn't, but I'm also a little biased.

Men's Retreat

I've been promising an update all week, and haven't given one, so I guess I'll try now.

Last Thursday, I got up and around and my dad and I went to Roaring River State Park. My uncle and grandfathers (that's too people, cause my uncle is not my grandfather, that would just be weird) church was having a men's retreat there. It's a chance for a group of men to get together, do some fishing or golfing and praise God.

The trip down was nice. (As was the Dr. Pepper I had. It had almost been 4 weeks since I had one.) Once we got down there, we found us each a bunk and unloaded the car. Then we headed down to the meal cabin to grab lunch. Just a quick sandwich, then we went down to the River for some fishing. This was my first Trout fishing trip, so I had to figure it out. Man are those trout tricky. I did manage to land 3 (my grandpa put one on my line, so I wasn't able to get my 4th, but that was fine).


Dinner Thursday night was lasagna. It was ok, but not as good as what I make, course most frozen aren't. But it was still pretty good.

The worship service was great. Good music, and a good message. The man there has been preaching at an inner city church in Dallas... did I mention it was a black church? 75 Baptist men was a deafening experience I'm sure. (He mentioned they cannot even do announcements without some "amens" or "preach it" from the people.) As soon as we were done for the evening, I crashed. I was exhausted.

We woke up bright and early Friday morning with fishing on our mind. My dad and I got to the river around 6:30ish or so I guess since the flier we had said fishing started at 7:00. Well, come to find out, that is August timing. In September, fishing starts at 7:30. So we had to wait a bit longer. I caught 2 and my dad 1 before we left for breakfast.

Breakfast was soooo good. Scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy, and hash browns. It's making my mouth water just typing it. After breakfast, we went back out to finish catching our limit. But when we got back, the fishing had slowed WAY down. When we FINALLY finished catching our limit at 12:30, I was more than ready to stop (mainly cause it started heating up). We got the fish cleaned and took it back to the cabin to drop off. I wanted to take a picture of the ice chest that was FULL of trout. We go there, and they had already took out 120 trout for dinner so they could finish cleaning them up and stuff like that. But even with 120 gone, this was still a lot of fish.


After that, we went out on a hike.

I've been looking forward to hiking up there ever since I decided to go. For my birthday, my wonderful wife bought me a really cool hiking stick with built in compass. Very nice, and very helpful climbing those mountains. I had lots of good pictures. Overall, the hike was at least 3.5 miles long. Maybe longer.



Dinner that night was smoked trout, corn on the cob, green beans, brown beans, salad, and baked potatoes. Again, delicious. I was so full afterwords.

Again the worship service was terrific.

I wasn't as tired Friday night as I was Thursday night so I stayed up a bit longer, but nothing crazy. We again set the alarm for 6 a.m. so we could pick up our bunk areas before the morning fishing time. But when I woke up, it was thundering and lightening. No fishing thing in that. I reset the alarm for 7 and rolled over. By 7, the storm had moved on. We contemplated not going fishing since fish don't usually bite very well after storms, but we decided to go. I'm glad we did. We both caught our limits before the 9:00 breakfast time. Once my dad finished catching his limit, we loaded up in the car, went and cleaned the fish, and headed back for breakfast. We got there about 10 after 9, but that isn't bad. Well, breakfast was over. Not sure they really had it. But it was already packed. In fact, everything was just about done. Nothing for me and dad to do except go and pick up our bunks and make sure the cabin was clean (which it was).

We finished up, and checked in to see if there was anything else we could do, (there wasn't), then we hit the road.

I so needed this trip. To get away from my kids, and work and everything really (except for my wife, I don't usually need a vacation from her). The worship services were really good.

If you are interested in seeing more pictures of the trip, you can see my Roaring River Flickr set.

WL - 9/29 check-in

After making my goal last week, then going on my camping trip, my weight is up 1.5 lbs.

Though, it isn't as bad as it could have been considering I gained at least 5 lbs on my camping trip, so I still lost weight this week, just not back down to my starting number.


So, since I've started I've lost 18.5 lbs.

Funeral

Today is one of those mixed blessing days.

Monday night, one of the men from my church, Lyle Tillinghast, passed away.

He lived a good long life, loved and served God, and was always there to lend a helping hand. I believe he was 75.

He had accepted Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior, so when he passed away Monday night, he went from a weak and hurting man into the presence of our Lord.

So, that, as you can guess, is the mixed blessing. We will miss Lyle very much, but we know he's no longer in pain and he's in Heaven right now.

His funeral is this morning at 10:00 at Floral Haven.

If you would, please when you read this, pray for his wife. They have been married for a VERY long time. I know I miss my wife when we are separated for short time and we've only been married 8 years.

(Now you know why I haven't posted on my trip last weekend)

3 Months and counting

I noticed today while doing some scheduling, that it is exactly 3 months to the day till Christmas!

I love Christmas. I love Thanksgiving too. But I do not have the money for Christmas to be here yet. It's about time to start shopping.

I have a few presents already, but not as many as I'd like. Granted, the presents isn't what Christmas is all about, but they are a really fun part. I love the shopping and the giving. The getting isn't too bad either. :)

Now I've got Christmas songs in my head. hehe

Cub Scouts Outing

Saturday when I got home from the Fishing trip (still another story) I picked up my boy, and took him to the big Scouting Fall Festival. This is a big event where the kids can go and see a lot of the things that scouting has to offer.

There was all types of things going on. By the time we got there, we only had an hour before it was all done.

My boy got to climb a rope and ring the bell at the top. He liked that, and didn't look like he had too much help (but he did have some).
He also go to drive a push cart (all I got to do was push) :)
He also got to do some archery. He really liked that, but he had problems pulling the bow back. I thought he did real good though.

Afterward, we went to Sonic for chocolate shakes.

We had a good evening. Just wish we could have been there longer and could have done more stuff.

I'm back

I've made it back from my fishing trip to Roaring River. It was great and I want to talk about it, but I'm tired. Expect a good update in the next day or two.

Trips are good, but it's good to be home with my family.

Wreck

As those who read my blog know, I normally get up every morning to go work out. And I usually leave the gym around 6:30 to come home. Because of my trip I didn't today.

That is a good thing. Just another example of how God watches over us even when we don't know it.

As I was getting around this morning, I heard a wreck around 6:30. I went an poked my head out the door, cause I knew it was close. Shortly thereafter, I heard sirens, but by the time I got to the door, I didn't see where it went. A Few minutes after that, more sirens. This time, I saw the Fire/Rescue truck go through the stop sign and turn off his sirens.

I went for a walk.

2 pickups (a mini and a full size) had a wreck at the corner of 12th and Broadway. Which is where I probably would have been in the car if I had gone and worked out. And that would really have put a damper on my fishing trip.

The dark little pickup was off the road and at first I though it had ran the stop sign and skidded off the road. However, as I go to 12th street, I saw the gold full size pick-up, UP SIDE DOWN.

My guess is the little pickup did run the stop sign, and hit the full size just right to flip it.

It wasn't pretty. However, the doors on the ambulance that was at the site was not open, so my guess is seat belts were used and no one was hurt too badly.

Pray for the people involved in the wreck. And for me as I drive to Missouri this morning.

See y'all when I get back.

Welcome Home

Welcome home Atlantis!

She landed 6:21 ET this morning.

WL - 9/20 check-in

I know it's not time for a Weight Loss check-in, but since I'll be on a much needed vacation on Friday, and leaving Thursday morning, I figured Wednesday is my best time this week.

I've now gone 3 1/2 weeks without Dr Pepper. (I think that is a record.)
This week, I saw some drop in body mass as well as weight.

Overall, as of this morning, I have lost 20 pounds. I've lost 3 inches in my chest, and 2.5 inches in my waist.

People have started noticing and my cloths are beginning to fit anywhere from a little to much looser.

I've made my goal for this month. Which also puts me half way to my total goal.

Though I will admit that hitting my total is a bit of a stretch, but I think I should be able to hit another 10 to 15 pounds. We'll see.

Of course this trip this weekend will be tough. I know I will gain weight. It's just how much will I gain. I'm lucky for 1 to 2 meals a day normally, while I'm gone, I know they make 3 meals a day. I know I'll hike at least one day, but not sure about the others, so that will help... a bit. Though I don't think fishing burns many calories. We'll see.

Highway 20 Bridge back!

Back in July, I talked about the State closing the Highway 20 bridge between Collinsville/Owasso and Claremore.

Today, the Highway 20 bridge over the Verdigris River is fixed and open.

The news report initially said it would be closed for 90 days. Today's report said 75. Either way, that is a long time. They ended up getting it done in 57 days.

Course at $3000/day bonus, I'd work my tail off too.

Cruisin'

I got the cruise put into the Caliber today. Yippee!

I dropped it off about 7:50, and they called me at 10:30 telling me it was done and ready to be picked up.

They (and I) didn't expect it to take long, but this was the first they had put into a Caliber, so you never know what complications might show up.

It was a nice drive home today not having to worry about my speed.

Caliber Update

We have had the Caliber for almost 4 months and I love it

Plus, I have good news. Monday, I will take the car in to FINALLY get the cruise control installed. They had 2 come in today and my salesman called me. I was impressed and happy.

I'm getting ready to take that trip this weekend, and I really didn't want to do it without cruise.

Also, I've learned something very important. It is important to put the right kind of oil in the car. I'm sure it is possible to hurt the engine if the wrong kind of oil is in it (maybe), but it can also hurt fuel efficencie. On my first oil change, I took it in to the dealer to change the oil. They had a special for a $10 oil change. I couldn't change it for cheaper, so I used it. Well, they used 10W30. The car said it wanted 5W20.

On the first tank of gas, I noticed my miles per gallon drop. Well, it was still new, and the gas mileage fluctuating wasn't surpising. But the next tank was just as bad if not worse. As was the next and next and next, etc.

On the last oil change I made sure to put the correct oil in it, and my gas mileage toped 30 MPG. I was happy. My next tank was around 27. So it appears that the oil was what cause the problem. It sorta surprised me.

WL - 9/15 check-in

Ok, 8 weeks down since I started eating less and exercising regularly.

How am I doing?

Well, come this Sunday, I will have gone 3 weeks without a soda pop.
This week, I've lost another 3 pounds, which takes me to a grand total so far of 17.5 pounds.

I'm also pretty much on track for my 10 pounds this month.

Funny thing as I've kept track of my weight loss, I noticed something interesting from the last few weeks. I've lost 6 pounds, and measurements in my chest and stomach have not dropped, course there are other area's to lose weight, but you'd think I'd a little!

Anyway. I'll weight next Thursday morning. A day earlier than normal because of a Men's retreat I'm taking with my grandfathers church. I'll be trout fishing, hiking and from what I've been told, eating well. This may not help my weight loss. Though, if I do enough hiking, it may not be bad.

Top Front Tooth #1

Come one, come all! My boy lost his first top, front tooth this morning.

First, his top 2 teeth have been lose for some time. But he's patient, and doesn't wiggle them.
Earlier this week, he was playing on the playground at school, and slipped and hit his tooth and his nose. That really made his tooth wiggle. He really only complained about his nose, but it almost knocked his tooth out. When he went to bed last night, he was willing to wait till it fell out all by its onesie.

This morning, I was going to fix him some cereal, and he said he couldn't eat it because of his tooth. I told him we could pull it, that way one, he could have cereal, and 2 he wouldn't have to worry about losing it at school and not having it for the tooth fairy.

He let me pull it.

Sleepy

Last night was the cub scout meeting where I learned more about the pop corn sales.

What's neat about the pop corn sales that the cub/boy scouts do. 70% of the money goes back into scouting.

Well, while I was there, I got paged. Long story short, at midnight I went to bed since I was still waiting for people to answer the page.

I got an hour of sleep before I was paged again. I was then up for almost 2 more hours before getting to go to bed. On the bright side, everything was working when I went to bed.

Course, I couldn't get up and work out this morning. I never heard the alarm even though my wife told me I turned it off.

Tears

Tonight, I made my son cry. I feel so bad.

He was taking a shower and got water EVERYWHERE in the bathroom. I mean everywhere. Took me several towels to clean up the mess.

Of course, I got mad at him.

I went back in a few minutes later to check on him cause I thought I heard crying. He was. Big, huge tears were just pouring down.

"I thought you didn't love me anymore" he said through his tears.

I felt horrible.

I explained to him that no matter what he ever does, no matter how much I may be mad at him, nothing would ever stop me from loving him. That made him feel better.

Course it still didn't make me not feel horrible.

Cub Scouts Den Meeting

Tomorrow was suppose to be my son's first den meeting, but because of some leader/parent meeting it won't be.

*sigh*

We were both really looking forward to it.

So, it looks like he will only have 2 den meetings a month. One week there is a parent/leader meeting, and another week is the pack meeting.

*sigh*

34 Years ago today

34 years ago today, I was born.

I was sitting on the back porch Saturday just thinking. (Yes, that is dangerous.) About how God has blessed me so much.

I've grown up with parents that loved each other, and me and my sister. We weren't beat (spanked, more than once, but that's not the same no matter what "they" say). And was taught how to love and care about others.

I've know all four of my grandparents and 4 great grandparents.

I was able to go to college (mostly on my parents tab... Thanks Mom and Dad!), and a great college at that (GO POKES!)

I have a wonderful, beautiful, creative (I could go on) wife! 2 great kids. 3 cars, a house and a good job.

Anyway, that's enough I guess.

Left Behind: Eternal Forces

While glancing through the News headlines today, I saw this very interesting story from Yahoo News of a popular Christian book spawning a video game.

The only popular Christian book that I could think of was the Left Behind books. And I was right. There is going to be Left Behind Games.

Here is the description from the Left Behind Website:

Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions in LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces - a real-time strategy game based upon the best-selling LEFT BEHIND book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Join the ultimate fight of Good against Evil, commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers, and uncover the truth about the worldwide disappearances!

• Lead the Tribulation Force from the book series , including Rayford, Chloe, Buck and Bruce against Nicolae Carpathia – the AntiChrist.
• Conduct physical & spiritual warfare : using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world.
• Recover ancient scriptures and witness spectacular Angelic and Demonic activity as a direct consequence of your choices.
• Command your forces through intense battles across a breathtaking, authentic depiction of New York City .
• Control more than 30 units types - from Prayer Warrior and Hellraiser to Spies, Special Forces and Battle Tanks!
• Enjoy a robust single player experience across dozens of New York City maps in Story Mode – fighting in China Town , SoHo , Uptown and more!
• Play multiplayer games as Tribulation Force or the AntiChrist's Global Community Peacekeepers with up to eight players via LAN or over the internet!

This could be a very good game. There is a downloadable demo of the game from their web page which I probably will download and give a shot.

The news article talks about how some people are in an uproar because this game is violent.

"It's reprehensible," said Florida attorney Jack Thompson, a critic of video game violence. "They're basically using the phrase — Christian game — to disarm parents into thinking it's going to be OK for our kids."

Well, I have a something I'd like to point out to this guy. No one said the Bible was not full of violence. It is. Lots of it. The Bible is full of lies, murder, deception, adultry, wars, insest, and probably much more stuff that I can't think of as I sit here and type.

Now, the Bible isn't a "How to" book on doing these things, but this stuff is in there.

Also, this is a GAME. Suppose to be fun to play. The developers are also trying to reach people with the gosple of Jesus Christ and at the very lease talking about things that will have eternal importance. A game with a Teen rating is about the same thing as a PG-13 movie. Most parents don't flinch an inch about letting their teen's watch PG-13 movies.

I acutally like how the developers responded when asked if the violence was needed to make the game fun. They replied "Violence is not required to make a fun game. However, it is required to make a game about the end of the world in the Left Behind book series. We have taken great care to make certain that there are real consequences for poor gamer behavior, unlike most games in the market. For instance, unnecessary killing will result in lower Spirit points which are essential to winning."

The game is expected out in October, but as I've said before, a downloadable demo is already available. I think I read they expect this game to cost in the $50 range and be rated Teen.

Birthday Party

My wife threw me a little birthday party. Both of our parents came over, and she cooked stuffed hamburgers! She also made cherry delight for desert! It was so good, and I ate WAY too much.

Oh well, how often does a person have a birthday right?

My boy made me a card and gave it to me. It was cute. It had a PlayStation on it, and Lego Star Wars II. He told me, we could get that game, and it would be for me! hehe

While I was opening my presents, my daughter ran off, and wrote me a short IOU birthday card. (she couldn't be one upped by her brother)

My mother-in-law actually got me a birthday present. I was shocked. She never gets birthday presents. It wasn't anything major, but I really liked it. It was an OSU toothbrush.

My parents went through a lot to get me my present, but finally found it. It was Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves Wide screen DVD. I use to have it on VHS, and the tape broke just a few weeks ago. So I really wanted this.

My wonderful wife got me an OSU T-shirt, and a really cool walking stick. It is awesome. I've wanted one for a while, but I've never found one I liked. This is too cool! She knows me so well.

I've had a great birthday party.

Monday is my actual birthday, and I'm sure I'll have more to say about that then.

Cowboys and Indians

Tonight, the Pokes played the Arkansas State Indians.

I was WAY worried in the first few minutes of the game. It wasn't looking good.

Game got much better. 35 - 7

Overall, they looked pretty good. Hopefully they'll keep that up the rest of the season.

(If they can skip the I don't know how to play football section at the very beginning of the game, I wouldn't mind!)

First U8 Soccer Game today

Today was our first U8 soccer game today.

The kids did great! 3 of the 6 kids scored points I think. 1 of the new kids that have never played before scored 2 points. I was excited. The funny part of that, was each time, his mom wasn't looking.

My most experienced kids did great. I'm going to have to watch them. They both look like they have tempers. That is not good.

It was a really good game. Though we still do not officially take score, one of the kids informed me that it was 17 - 2. I'm not sure if that is acurate or not, but it probably was.

I tried to slow down of the girls that was scoring to it didn't get worse. It didn't go so well.

I even had a parent volunteer to coach for me that game I'll be on that Men's Retreat on the 23rd. That was good to get the help. I hate having make-up games.

Atlantis has launched!

I'm excited to hear that Atlantis has launched!

It is headed to the ISS to add more solar arrays. These new arrays will double the power output of the station!


This is cool. Nothing else could be added to the station until these arrays were added to the station. Once this is done, there will be enough power supply to finish the station!

Wow, launches are so cool!

Happy Birthday Star Trek

The first episode of Star Trek originally aired 40 years ago today.

Hard to believe it's been around that long.

In it's 40 years, there has been 10 movies, 4 TV series, 1 cartoon, and books and comic books galore!
(and I've heard rumors of a new movie)

I can't imagine what life would be like without Star Trek.  It's had an impact on just about everything.

WL - 9/8 check-in

It's been a week and things are going ok I guess.

I've lost 3 pounds this week.

So, finishing up my 7th week of trying to eat right and exercise almost daily (6 days a week) I'm lost a grand total of 14.5 pounds.

I've had a couple people actually notice which has been nice.

It's going to be hard to lose another 5.5 pounds in 12 days. Really it is 14 days, but I've got a Men's Retreat I'm going to and will be gone for my normal weigh in.

Blog mishaps

This morning, I walked by the computer as my wife was looking at my blog. Was I shocked to see that one of my posts was all screwed up. So, I open it up, and it looks fine.

The difference? IE vs FireFox.

I've corrected that horrible error, and it looks fine in both again.

ahhhhhh All is right in the world.

Gmail drive shell extension

Stumbled across an interesting article at Lifehacker today.

Long story short, it lets you use your Gmail email account as an online hard drive.

Once you install this tool, you drag and drop the file using Windows Explorer, and it basically emails you the file, but you can see it like a hard drive. Download it as an email attachement elsewhere.

Oklahoma State Quarter - Vote

It is getting close to the time that the Oklahoma quarter will be released.

You can have a say on what will be placed on the quarter.

There are 10 finalists to chose from. You can pick up to 5.

Labor Day Picnic/Hike

My parents called today, and asked what plans we had. Since we didn't have any, they asked if we wanted to come out for a picnic and a hike.

Sounded good to me!

We got to my parents around noon or so, and we headed out to Osage Hills State Park. I didn't even know about this park. It is about 15 minutes west of Bartlesville on Highway 60.

They have camping (tents and RV), hiking, a pool, tennis court, a ball field. There is a lake that is suppose to have good bass, crappie, catfish and perch fishing (no gasoline powered boats).

After cooking and eating some delicious hamburgers, we went out for a hike. It was beautiful.


There is also a lot of wild life. Today, we saw buzzards, hawks, lizards, grey and brown squirrels, armadillo's (alive can you believe it), turtles, and deer. My parents have seen bobcats out there. I'm know I didn't see one, but I think I might have heard one, but I'm not positive.

I have never seen so many armadillo's alive in one place. I'm use to seeing them dead on the roads all the time. At one point, I heard a noise, so I got everyone to be mostly quiet. (You'd have to know my family to really understand that). I tracked the noise to something that was under some leaves. Turned out to be an armadillo. As I got a bit closer to it, it turned into a ball (self defense).


That was too cool! I tried to get closer to get a really good picture. As I did, I guess it decided I had gotten close enough. It jumped up, and took off running. When it did that, I about jumped out of my skin, and jumped back myself. I know what happens when you corner wild animals. They tend to turn and fight and I didn't want to get whooped by an armadillo. What I didn't know about them is how fast they can run. Which is very, VERY fast. hehe My wife laughed so hard!

We hiked for about 2 hours or so. Maybe 2 and a half. My boy did great! I was a bit concerned taking him on such a long hike. But he couldn't have done better.

I plan on going back when foliage starts changing. It should be beautiful!

If you want to see some more pictures, I have posted some as a set on Flickr.

Crocodile Hunter Dead

Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, died Monday snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef.

He was killed by a stingray barb that pierced his chest.

He came over the top of a stingray that was buried in the sand, and the barb came up and hit him in the chest.

I'm in shock. I loved watching Steve Irwin's shows. From sound of the CNN article, weather had kept him from working on a show on "Ocean's Deadliest" and decided to work on a children's show.

For me, the worse part is he has an 8 year old daughter (Bindi) and a 3 year old son (Robert).

Pastorless

Today was the last day of our pastor at church.
He accepted a position as BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministries) Director. He will be very good at this, and I'm excited for him, but I will miss him.

This now puts our church without a pastor. Our Search Committee has met and we're starting our look.

This is really an exciting time for our church as well, though not everyone realizes it. When God moves in one place, He is moving elsewhere. Since God is moving our pastor away from us, He already has a man planned for us.

The search will last for a while since you don't want to rush into finding a new pastor. I'm on the search committee. First time to server on a Pastor search committee. This should be interesting.

September

It's September!

Can you believe it? I can't. This year has just flown by.

Course I love September! And for several reasons

1. My Birthday is in September! (9/11)
2. The weather starts cooling off! (this is a biggie for me)
3. The Tulsa State Fair starts this month! I love going to the fair, when I can.
   
4. Fall is right around the corner (not to mention Thanksgiving and Christmas!)
   

Those are only four reasons, but I figure if took more time, I could think of more.

Enjoy September everyone, it will be gone before you know it!

WL - 9/1 check-in

Well, I'm just finishing my 6th week of working out.

I've stayed even on weight loss, but considering I gained a lot of week last week between my wife's 20th HS reunion and my momma's yummy fried chicken and home-made rolls, I feel that's pretty good.

However, I have lost another inch in my waist! That's a total of 2 inches! So I'm feeling pretty good.

I've been extreamly tired lately. I'm not sure if it's the extra working out or just daily life now that school is in session, and all. I got a real good nights rest last night, and it really seemed to help my workout this morning.

Maybe I'll try that again tonight. hehe (yea right)