G'Night all

Well this was a strange day. Interestingly enough, it ended with a wonderful phone conversation with my pops. He really is amazing, he continues to inspire me. I love you daddy-o. The ultrasound was really, really strange. I'm not sure what to make of it or when I'll find out any info about the results but I'll be sure to let everyone know.G'nig...

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Posted in: family,florida,friends

So, it's been a few days...

Well, it's been an interesting few weeks. As you know, Aimee and I have been trying to have a baby for a REALLY long time. In fact, we've pretty much been trying continuously for our entire marriage (6 years this month). Well, we went to a fertility doctor to try and figure out whether or not something medical was preventing it from happening or if it was just incredibly bad luck. Let me preface this by saying that Aimee and both have the utmost faith that God will give us a baby if He wants us to have one. We have known since we were dating, really, that we would foster/adopt many children through the course of our marriage. I have known since I was a young boy that there was a chance that I would have trouble in this area because I had a surgery that 'could' affect my abilities. When...

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Posted in: family,friends

the way it is...

Kind of Bluea Strangeran unwelcome Friendunexpectedanticipation becoming clean up dutyabrupt endsalmostthe Last one Upthat taste in your mouthwondering sound asleepheavy eyesintriguingColtrane and Da...

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Valley Metro

So, I like to ride the bus. Interesting people, saves on gas, don't feel as bad about having a big truck, it's nice to get a mile of walking in every day. I also enjoy not driving in Phoenix. Aimee can definitely tell when I've ridden the bus and when I've driven, because when I get home from work I have a completely different attitude. Plus, it's incredibly convenient in this city. For those of you that haven't lived outside of PHX, there aren't buses roaming around every city like they do here. Matt can attest to that. They have(had) several convenient ways to pay as well. You could buy a monthly pass that basically let you ride as much as you want whenever you want for one low monthly fee (I think it was somewhere between 30 and 45 bucks). For me, the best thing they had going...

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Posted in: friends,work

This gets me every time I see it...

This dude is 4 years old in this video...

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Ummmm

So I was looking for a carpet remnant on craigslist for our storage room (that we're hoping to convert into an office) when I ran across this:http://phoenix.craigslist.org/spo/650040968.htmlAbout which I could only think to myself, "Wow, that seems like a lot for a stripper pol...

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Posted in: friends,interests

Crazy day

Well, today was an interesting day.  Lots happened, it's hard to believe it was only one day's worth of stuff.  First off, my truck was still not working this morning so I just rode the bus.  I found out that they no longer take the tickets I have so I almost didn't get to ride.  Luckily, I had a buck twenty-five and could ride it to work.  I called and bitched out the customer service people and they didn't care. I probably have $30 worth of those darn tickets (thanks Matt).  I wrote the customer service email address and explained why I think it's ridiculous that they won't trade them out at all for the new tickets.  We'll see how that pans out.  When I got to work I had to give a demo of the project I've been working on to my new manager and the director...

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Posted in: family,florida,friends,home improvement,work

Well...poop

So this has been an all around depressing day. I have been unable to get my truck fixed. For some reason the alternator is just not charging the battery, even though the fine technicians at Pep Boys put it on the machine and verified it. I am pretty sure I am just going to tell them to suck it tomorrow and buy a new one. So, I was messing around with batteries and wiring and what not and I came across a stuck bolt. This bold happened to be a corroded terminal stud that was in my spare battery. So I grabbed my vise grips after having been unsuccessful at getting it off with any wrench (and rounding it off in the process) and start to really put some torque on it. Yay it came loose! Unfortunately, when it came loose my vise grips spun around and made contact with the other terminal of...

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Posted in: family,friends,home improvement,interests

Amazing new TV show on PBS

One of the fantastic things about Tivo is the way it learns about you. I know this might seem creepy to some people but I am into software and this is a bit like software I have worked on in the past. I will say that Tivo knows their stuff, it is very good software. Anyways, my Tivo pointed me in the direction of a new reality series/documentary that PBS has done called Carrier. I downloaded (free!) a 25 minute preview from Amazon Unbox onto the Tivo and realized at the end my jaw was just hanging. The footage was beautiful, the people that they have built the show around are just regular joes, and the concept is just amazing. There are 10 episodes and each one focuses on a different theme. The one that got me was the one on faith, they apparently focused an episode on faith in God,...

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Posted in: interests

Dangit man, that was a crazy night!

Well, it doesn't happen much, but I had a wild night last night. I have never wanted to blog about an event more than I want to blog about last night. How many times can I say blog? Blog blog bloggity blog blog. Maybe I'll create a new blot, write a detailed account of all the events that transpired, and never tell anyone the url, just so I can write about it :)Have fun searching...

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Posted in: friends,interests

Good Morning!

Wow, well we had quite a surprise when we woke up this morning. I was laying in bed, happily thinking about the fact that I had the morning off of work. Then I heard Aimee say those fateful words, "MARIAH! What have you done to yourself." This can never be a good thing...but I tried to convince myself I was dreaming. I closed my eyes really tight and just kept thinking, "don't wake up don't wake up don't wake up." Unfortunately, it was all too true. Mercedes loves markers. Mariah loves markers. Unfortunately, Mercedes knows that if Mariah gets her markers they all go in the garbage. This dates back to the 'sharpie on the couch incident'. Well, turns out Merc lost track of one of her markers. The black one. I opened my eyes to see Aimee holding up our baby, covered head to toe with...

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Posted in: family

And...that's what she said

Well, turns out dead batter = dead alternator in this case. I've been suspecting it for years, actually, but it always checks out ok. Guess this time it checked out. H...

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Well, what a night

Ok. So, it started out nicely. Aimee made a nice dinner for us, Mercedes was being a good girl, and Mariah greeted me at the front door with, "I pee-pee my chonies." Welcome to suburbia. It went down hill from there though. Mariah was a bisnatch during dinner and wouldn't eat her vegetables. She was pretty much doing the 'wrong thing' all during dinner time and then she was invading Merc's bathtime. Argh. It's annoying to me how little kids can just go from screaming their lungs out and shaking in a fit of righteous anger to being cute and making fart noises in the shower. By and by, Mariah is 2.5 years old and can take a shower pretty much by herself. That's some bad-ass parenting if you ask me. Yes, I said shower. Anyways, then we get a call to come get some sweet bedroom furniture...

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Posted in: family,home improvement

Well, as you all know Aimee and I have a house in Florida. It's the house my grandparents built in 1960 and I bought it in 2001. We got very lucky as we bought it just BEFORE the big housing boom so we paid next to nothing for it and its value shot up very quickly. When we moved to Arizona we decided to keep it and rent it out mainly because we weren't sure if we'd stay in AZ but also because its a piece of family history. We also didn't think we'd ever be able to buy again on Merritt Island the way the real estate market was going. Anyways, it has been an adventure being a landlord, thank God for my dad who manages it for us, and we have gone through a lot of ups and downs. Well, we have had good tenants for the past two year (finally!) but have never really been able to build up a...

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Posted in: family,florida,real estate

First Post!

Well, consider me suckered into the world that is blogger.  I can't for the life of me understand why people want to read what I have to say about anything but I'm game.  I'll start out by just saying that I don't know what I want to blog about...so I guess this could be very random for a while.  I love photography, so I'll subject you to my picture taking nonsense. I love my family, so I'll subject to endless prattling about how wonderful and amazing they are.  I love my friends, so I'll probably write on and on about the fantastic things they are doing.  I am in seminary, so I am likely to talk about things that are going on with school andy my studies as well as my faith.  Lastly, I am a huge nerd, so I guess I'll write a lot about nerdy stuff.  Maybe...

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Posted in: family,friends,hobbies,interests