Face of the earth

I have spent the last couple of days blissfully unaware of anything to do with work or computers in general.  I must admit I enjoyed it tremendously.  I was unconnected, unaware, and loving it!  After officially falling of the face of the earth for a couple days I must say that the face of the earth is overrated.  I enjoyed just sitting and playing with my vast quantities of children and doing my honey do list.  I rearranged my entertainment center, put new weather stripping on the doors, got my foster parent training finally completed for this year, cleaned up some speaker wires the babies just love to play with (sorry babies it is for your own good), and most importantly for the first time since I have worked at my current job I did not have to come in over the holidays at all!  I had a great time and hope you guys did too.

A few of my favorite things 2008

These are a few of my favorite things I found this year.  These favorite things are excluding the obvious like my family etc.  Inspired by this post.

1) I finally broke down and got a big screen TV and LOVE it when I get the opportunity to watch it.

2) I am 100% addicted to my blackberry!  Awesome tool for work and life!

3) Dual Monitors! It opens up a whole new world.  I first got them here at work then when we bought a new computer at home I told Heather she had to get dual monitors.  I think she is hooked too!

4) FaceBook.com!  Another addition of mine.  What a blast this is connecting with new and old friends.  Much better than MySpace in my opinion. Don't forget the Facebook application for the BlackBerry to Geek it out properly.

5) Blogger.com!  My wife also turned me on to blogs this year and I have to say it is awesome!  I feel like I know some of the bloggers better than my real life friends.  Well I probably do because in real life you just don't have time to share like you can in a blog. Does that make me weird to have cyber friends?

6) 24hr Fitness.  Ok so another addiction of mine...  I think I have a problem... This is turning into and intervention post I think.  They opened up a gym right down the road from me and there is also one near my office so I get to go at lunch and after work!  Feel the burn baby!

7) Sensi~Care.  My wife actually discovered this but it has been a God send with all the pooping going on with these digestively challenged babies.  It creates a barrier between the baby bottom and anything.  Very crucial when the babies have toxic poo that eats their butts.

I am sure there are more but can not think of them right now.  If I do I will edit the post and add them.

Tried to figure out Mr. Linky thing but no luck so far... Just leave a comment with a link to your favorite things of 2008.

Ice Ice Baby!

I have lived in the south all of my life first in Charlotte NC and now in North Texas. Living in these areas has its colorful locals for certain but for the most part I work and live with people that are from all areas on the US and world. I meet very few people who are actually from the area. So today the melting pot are at odds with each other. Today we have ice everywhere which only happens perhaps twice a year and it never fails during these brief interludes of ice that someone from "bad weather land" will comment on how much us backwards hillbilly folk can not drive in bad weather.

First of all we are hillbillies but it is never nice to call people names. Secondly can anyone really drive on ice? I mean sure people from "bad weather land" can drive on snow because you see it more often than those of us that live closer to the equator, but ice is ice, no traction, slippery, fall down go boom, etc. Thirdly you might be from "bad weather land" and have driven in snow every day of your life but the fact is you are in the south now where we see snow/ice once or twice a year so our local governments do not have the money to invest in the equipment necessary to properly prepare and clean the roads. Even if you are used to it the roads here are not as well taken care. So if you see me driving 10 miles per hour leave me be I'm nervous! Give me lots of room! It's really in your best interest I may freak out at any moment!

"That's all I got to say about that"

Candid Photo MEME (at Heather's request)

MEME (What does this mean?) I don't know I am just doing what I was told to do by my wife!

My wife's POST and directions:

Here's the rules:
Shot on the spot, where you’re supposed to take a picture and post it right away.
Rules are:
1) Take a picture of yourself right NOW!
2) DON’T change your clothes, DON’T fix your hair… Just take a picture.
3) Post that picture with NO editing.
4) Post these instructions with your picture.
5)Tag up to 10 people to do this, be sure to let them know they're tagged!

So here is the candid picture of me from this morning.  Please forgive me I didn't have time to button up my shirt and my hair was a little messy but I guess that is what is all about right, warts and all?

Really I don't have a way to take a picture right now.  Sorry :(

Stand up for your rights!

Apparently it is perfectly acceptable to release your pent up gas while standing next to me at a urinal!  I think the proper etiquette is for me to stare straight ahead and pretend like I am deaf but I can not stay silent (pun intended) any longer!  I mean do I attract these Aggressive Urinal Farters or is this a more global issue?  Why is it acceptable because you are at a urinal?  It is like picking your nose while you are driving.  You are NOT invisible people we see you diggin in that thing like there is gold up there!  I would just like to say for the record WE HEAR YOU and it's not cool!

If you are a victim of AUF (Aggressive Urinal Farters) please join me in my fight!  If you suffer from AUF there is help for you.   Please join a support group near you and put an end to AUF!

One year ago...

I am sitting in one of my favorite BBQ places enjoying some smoked turkey with all the "fixins", talking with my boss about something or nothing and the phone rings.  I usually do not answer while at lunch because it is rude first of all and anything of importance can always wait until I am done digesting right?  I knew we were on the list for foster placement however so I decided to answer it.  It was indeed Heather calling saying we have a possible little boy. Rylan our second foster son had gone to live with his grandmother just a couple weeks before so we were anxious for another placement.  She said his mother had tested positive for several drugs and that she had given up several children before this one.  He would however, need open heart surgery in a couple months to correct a congenital heart defect and they needed a family to get him through that before he went to live with his grandparents.  I told her to get more information and call me back.  I would not normally consider this because of the medical needs however something made me say YES when she called back.  I think in the back of my mind I was thinking that the grandmother would get him so we would only be taking care of him for a couple months.

Since that day every time I get a moment to myself I wonder about all the children we have declined for one reason or another.  Did I make the right call?  What about all the wonderful children that I will never get to meet?  What if I had turned down baby T?  Overwhelming.

Yesterday my little boy turned one year old and I have to say he lights up my world.  When I get home from work he is there with his chubby little fingers on the gate saying "Da Da" through is half toothed grin!  Melts me every time. 

Happy Birthday Baby T!  Daddy Loves you! 

HOPE

Hope is the belief that your tomorrows will be better than your today or a feeling that your desire will be fulfilled.  It can be a powerful driving force in your life.  It can be the only thing that keeps you going sometimes.  Life can also be debilitating without it.  You have no direction to strive, no goal to reach, no belief things can get any better than they are right now.

I met a man this weekend that had just gotten out of prison and this week is on his way to live in a men's shelter because he has no where else to go.  He had a rough childhood with an abusive father.  He was in prison because he was hooked on drugs and did very desperate things to get more.  He wants to leave that behind and I see huge potential in this young man.  He has been clean for a year because he was in prison.  This is the bottom for him but with the right direction this can be a renewal and a rebirth for him.  This can be a new beginning.  I want to be that hope for him, I want to provide that direction and encouragement to not fall back into the same lifestyle (because that is what he knows) but to move forward with a fresh start.  With nothing else to loose he stands at a crossroads one path is difficult and unknown one path is easy and familiar.  I pray that God will provide a way for me to mentor him on the unknown path.  I want him to be able to reach up through HOPE and grab a hold of joy again to do the things with his life he wants to, to be the man God wants him to be.

It is important to me because the man I met is my foster son's dad.  We hope to adopt him soon and I know that someday my son will want to search out his birth father and I want the man he finds to be a righteous man living for God.  Pray that I can reach out to him.