Moving on

The house is officially not ours....at least not now. We signed the release form today so now someone else can make an offer if they dare. So that is enough about 1517 W. Noble for now.

We also had our eyes on a couple other smaller houses that we thought would make great rental properties once we upgrade in a few years, but someone beat us to them. We are now just hanging out where we are and keeping an eye out to see if anything comes available that we just can't live without, otherwise we will wait until our lease is up in June and buy something then.

With all of that settled we are now moving on to personal improvements. I am getting braces and Lindsay will be getting laser eye corrective surgery or whatever they call it these days. I have already started on consultations for braces because I think I have to be done with them before I can go to pilot training. The ortho said it should take right about two years depending on how well I obey his instructions. Since I am getting them so late in life I will need to have oral surgery. My bottom jaw is significantly larger than my top so then my top jaw needs to be cut and then expanded so that it fits with my bottom jaw. I am meeting with the surgeon next Monday. I am not excited about the $7k-$10k it will all costs, but am glad to finally be getting it done.

I am still going through the semester kicking and screaming. My motivation drops with each and every assignment. So far I have yet to slack off, but the temptation is continually growing.

Lindsay came down with some sickness yesterday so was home all day relaxing. I think it helped quite a bit. We will see how bushy her tail is in the morning though. The base is having an exercise Thursday through Sunday so we will be up there doing....stuff. Heck that's two more days I don't have to be at Wal-Mart, but I also have to miss some class for it.

I think Porsche needs a new starter. That's no good. She picked a good week to crap out on me though. It is in the 70's all week so the riding has been great. She just got 4 brand new tires and the truck needs two new ones asap. I've got two new tires in the garage for the Buell as well. I guess you can't have too much good rubber laying around though.

This has been kind of a stressful week with projects due, sickness, car trouble and base exercises, but it is almost over so that is a great relief. I am actually ready for Monday already, that just doesn't sound right.

Oh yeah we just had Halloween. We went to my friends house in Moore who had a party. Lindsay wore her mom's flapper costume she made 20 years ago (very impressive and it looks great) and I dressed up as the Greek god Jasonious. Lindsay can tell you where that idea came from sometime later. We had fun and made it home safely so it was a good night. Lindsay posted the rest of the pics on her facebook.

Okay well I have rambled enough for tonight. I went to bed at 8:40 and realized that is way to early so I got up and this is what I found to do. My eyes feel pretty heavy now though so hopefully I can lay down and zonk out. Goodnight.

Graduation

Quick update. I just recieved my graduation packet in the mail today.....well since it is Sunday it probably came yesterday, I just didn't get bother to check it then. Anyway so long as I continue to attend most of my classes this semester I will graduate in December and have commencement on Saturday Decembe 12th at 2:00 p.m. I don't necessarily care if I walk or not, but I will probably end up going through with it. A big thank you to UCO for changing the colors of the cap and gown starting Fall 2009. Now I have to go buy a cap and gown instead of using Charles'.

That's all. Just thought you might want to know. I am sure there will be some kind of hoopla event afterwards with lots of balloons, streamers, kazoo's, pointy party hats and such. There will be more details on that later.

Ok that is all. You are dismissed.

Long month...

Ok so it has been over a month now since we updated and it seems like a lot has happened since then, yet we are still in the same place we were since we last talked. Anyway so the down and dirty is that we decided it is time to buy a house. We fell in love with a huge house in Guthrie which is what the slide show is of. After over a week of negotiating we settled on a price and then went to work on getting it inspected. It needs a LOT of work, which would take several years and several thousand $$$$ to complete. Well it now looks like the bank won't loan on the house unless we fix it up first?!?! We don't exactly have the $50k-$80k it would take so unless God really wants us to have this house right now it looks like we might just hope for sometime in the future. The appraiser didn't even finish the appraisal and said it is not worth the purchase price so there is not way we would get the loan anyway. This last month has been a good experience with getting our feet wet in real estate. We are now looking at getting two small houses. One to live in and one to rent. Then we can slowly upgrade over the years as our income increases and continue to acquire real estate as we go. We would still like to buy a house before Nov. 31 so we can get the tax rebate. We are going to look at a few houses in Guthrie on Monday.

We are keeping the door open for the first house we want just in case God blesses us with some financial miracle. We have gone back and forth on this house that I don't even know what I want anymore. This is a good thing for me, I think, because I know my emotions and desires shouldn't get in the way of what God is trying to do so hopefully I will be more receptive to what God is trying to tell us. Either way I it looks we are about to be in the middle of a change of seasons in our lives. We will be buying a house(s), changing jobs, moving cities, contemplating children, finishing school and beginning civilian pilot training. The next 3 months should be very revealing of what the next 5 years will produce in our lives.

So essentially nothing physical has changed in the last month but there have been many hours of thinking about what is about to change. We will update again when something changes....or after many more hours of thinking about it.

We appreciate all of your prayers and welcome any advice you may have for what we are experienceing. See you later.

One more thing...

We had our two year anniversary August 5th and we actually sorta kinda celebrated it......well at least more than we did for our 1 year anniversary (which we didn't do anything because I was deployed and by deployed I mean hang out in California at Travis AFB). We just got all fancied up and went out to eat at a restaurant by the lake. We thought it worthy of a special occasion, but there were more people there just having a casual dinner with the family and kids than anything else. During our 20 minute wait to get in on a wednesday evening, we were sickened by the people who had enough money to blow on $15 minimum/plate for a casual dinner. Lindsay was a little jealous, but I seriously can't imagine spending that much money to go out to eat on a regular basis. Anyway it quite delicious. We started with a some calimari I think, followed by smoked salmon, mashed red potatos, seasonal veggies and finished off with Something Chocolate (that is what it was called). It was a nice evening and the weather was lovely as well. Until next year.....

End of Summer

Since I am still stranded in school we are going by the school calendar which means summer is over. We ended summer with a bang though. After returning home from a week in Texas we both went our separate ways. I went north to Wisconsin and Lindsay went south to the Caribbean. Looking back I now see she got the better end of that deal.

I went for some military training for about 11 days. It was a lot of fun and I recieved some valuable insight from 3 pilots that went with us. The weather was great and we thoroughly enjoyed teh 60-70 degree daytime highs. We didn't do much sight seeing....as well there is not much sight to be seen. We did make our way 3 hours across the state to the Mall of America.......not worth it. It's just a big mall. If you don't excited about going to your local mall then you shouldn't get excited about going to that one. It's just bigger and has 3 old navy's instead of 1, as well as many other multiples. The roller coasters in the middle of the mall all seemed to be pretty childish so we didn't waste our money on them.

When we came home from that trip I spent the following two weeks working at the guard base doing odd jobs around there......basically whatever I could to delay going back to Wal-Mart. I started back there on Monday as well. I was ready to quit for good within the first hour of being back. I somehow made it through the first day and the following have been much better. It has turned into a very intense micromanaging enviroment which I can't stand. I think after the first day the managers remembered that it wasn't really my first day, I had just been gone for a month and finally began to let me do what needs to be done without them breathing down my pretty blue shirt.

School should be fun this semester. I have two real estate classes and two finance classes. I can already tell there will be a lot of overlapping information so that should help out. I am also only working 26 hours a week at Wal-Mart and am done by 4:30 mon-fri with weekends off. This semester will be much more enjoyable than the previous 6 years of schooling has been. Most importantly I will not be dealing with ROTC at OU.......That will begin another paragraph...

My time with the pilots in Wisconsin got the wheels spinnin to consider pursuing a pilot career in the guard. Long story short that is what I am now doing. I am no longer in ROTC and am now preparing to apply for a pilot at Will Rogers Air National Guard Base here in OKC. Once I get my degree this December the only thing I will be lacking is some flight time. Turns out I have several connections with flight instructors.....So beginning in January I am going to go full time flight school and get my private pilot certificate (license). Then I want to deploy and make some $$money$$. I will interview for a pilot position in September 2010.

Anyway that's probably enough about me for now. If anyone reads this and wants to know details about Lindsay then you should comment and let her know, because we don't think we really have people that read this thing so she doesn't take the time to update it.

Off to bed now.

Texas Trip

Hey all. We recently got home from a week long trip to Texas to visit Lindsay's parents. The trip started friday morning at 2:15a.m. Lindsay didn't get home until after midnight from working all day and I was able to get to bed around 10:30. Needless to say......which is probably the most useless phrase in the english language, the trip started very sleep deprived. We left about 3:15 after getting the truck loaded up with all necessities for the trip, including the motorcyle and trackday gear. We made it to the track by 6:30 which was an hour earlier than we needed to because the track website had the wrong information. We got setup for the day and ended up having a lot of fun. I hadn't ridden at the track in awhile so it took a couple sessions to get up to speed. Well 5:00 came and I was hot and tired. The bike was just as pretty as when we first got there and I didn't have any new injuries so it was a good day. We took off from the track for what we thought was a 3 hour drive and was actually a 5 hour drive which we turned in to a 6 hour drive. I feel like starting a new paragraph.

We got to the in-laws house a little after 11:00 that night, but about 10 minutes before we did we met some of the local wild life. We saw a deer on the side of the road so I flashed my lights and honked the horn. The deer overcame the shock of my headlights and darted back into the woods so Lindsay said "Wow I am glad we did not hit that deer" and a second after she finished the satement BAM!!!! the deer ran into the right front quarter panel of my truck and bounced off the hood. That stupid deer was a vengeful creature. He left a basketball size dent in my truck that I was not too happy about. Anyway we take out the deer and continue on to our final destination. We pull into the driveway tired and ready for bed. I had taken my shoes off for comfort's sake. I get out of the truck and walk about 10 feet toward the garage where Lindsay is greeting her parents. All of sudden I feel this intense stinging/burning in my foot. I lift it up and a freakin' scorpion scurries its way to the garage. I STEPPED ON A SCORPION BAREFOOT!!! At this point I am hopping a one leg, holding the other while pointing to mini satan running away and producing a sound similar to when the doc tells a 10 year old girl say "AHHH" so he can look down her throat. Someone grabs a shoe and kills the satanic messenger and then my all too sympathetic mother in law says "that's why you wear shoes in the country". Linz and I get a good laugh out of that response throughout the week. It was not quite the start we had hoped for, but we were there mostly safe and there was a shower and bed waiting.

The rest of the week was much more fun. A couple visits by the grand parents, some shopping, some yard work, cooking and cleaning, house decorating, ground school and good time to sit back and enjoy being away from home/work and with family.

Of the many exciting things I experienced that week the best was getting to fly the T-6 simulator at Randolph AFB. A HUGE THANK YOU to my father in law David and his friend Dave for setting up the opportunity for me to get some stick time in the trainer. It was really incredible to see what it's like to be in the pilot seat. I am very anxious to see if God has pilot slot in my future. I look forward to getting many more hours in the pilot seat!

There are many more stories to be told from the week, but it is late and I am tired so you will have to hear them in person unless Lindsay gets off of the beach in Curacao and gives you her side of the trip. Good luck with that.:)

I am in Wisconsin right now with the Air National Guard and Lindsay is in the Carribean with a friend she was deployed with. I am sure we will post an update when we get back home.

See ya.

Summer Time

Wow it has been awhile hasn't it. So that means the suspense must be killing you and I shouldn't let you down with a short, piddly update entry.....right? Well sorry that's what you get for now. This summer has been really great! I knocked out 6 more hours of school with "A's" which leaves me with 12 hours left in the fall and then I am done. Now that is suspense for ya, well for me I guess. You're probably not as excited for me to graduate as I am. Oh well, you had your time. :)

I am almost completely done with Wal-Mart. I only work about 12 hours a week now with the original intent of going back to full time after summer school, but I really don't want to. I have been working with Linz at the Sand Plum and enjoy that much more. I haven't quite decided what my work will look like next semester, but if it was up to me I would full time at the Sand Plum. It will take some more prayer and waiting to decided, but I will let you know what happens.

Linz has been busy, busy, busy! I haven't minded so much because I have been up there with her. She just experienced the worst wedding to date which ended with the cops being called. It's a long story though so you can ask her about it when you see her.

We are leaving tomorrow morning at 0300 aka 3:00 in the A.M. which leaves us with far less than the desired and much appreciated 8 hours of sleep the good Lord intended us to have every night. I am riding our GSXR750 at Eagles Canyon Raceway all day tomorrow and then we are heading down to Lindsay's parents house for a vacation of landscaping. That's only part of it though. It will be fun and we have both been looking forward to seeing them again.

Anyway this is already longer than I intended so I am off to salvage as much shut eye as I can before we have to get up before the moon. The truck is loaded, I am packed, the house is clean, breakfast is setout and ready, so now I just need to get my wife home so she can pack and get to bed. Goodbye.

Stupid Alarm Clock

So it is Tuesday morning and I don't have work or school until 6:00 tonight so I was going to "sleep in" (I use that term loosely) until 5:30 because I volunteered to help move some stuff at the church at 6:30. Well when I was setting the alarm last night for 5:30 I accidentally set the actual time ahead by 1 hour so instead of "sleeping in" until 5:30 I actually got up at 4:30 which is really only "sleeping in" about 15 minutes compared to usual so it doesn't really count for anything. I already ate breakfast and was waiting for my green tea (I think I may be getting sick and green tea is supposed to be loaded with little disease fighting ninjas called antioxidants so I thought it would be a better choice than coffee) to cool before I realized what I had done. By then it was too late to salvage a little shut eye so here I am updating you.

Yes school is out....well sorta. The spring semester is over but I just can't seem to get enough so I am currently taking an intercession class which takes up my evenings from 6-10 and my weekends from 9-5 so that is pretty exciting. It's a bummer right now but I get to graduate about 5 months earlier so it will be worth it come spring next year. I then have a summer class June 1-25 which is 3 hours a day Mon-Thur. I really don't mind these classes I am just really burnt out on wal-mart right now. 4a.m. wake up calls 4 days a week are just wearing me down. I am cutting back on wal-mart for about 6 weeks starting June 1st. I will only be working Thursday evenings and Friday mornings to ensure I have ample time to do necessary studying for class. I will work with Linz at the Sand Plum in my free time whenever that will be.

I really need to spend some time with my little bro also. I have seen him an average of once a month for the past few months and I am supposed to see him every week. My problem is that I have a hard time thinking of activities to do with him so I just don't do anything, but I am going to get over that this summer and actually see him on a regular basis.

I still have yet to hear anything back about a pilot slot. The 3-4 weeks I was told it would take has since turned into 6-7 weeks which I expected. I am still hoping and praying I will get a slot now. Linz and I got excited about filling out my (our) dream sheet for base location just because of the thought of living in Europe, but I would be pretty disappointed if I don't get a pilot slot.

Linz and Cheri started up P90X again. They are doing really well and seem very motivated to complete it. Way to go ladies!!! I decided P90X is not really my thing. For 1, it is hard. And 2 it is more designed for toning and weight loss which is not my goal. Explanation of reason #1. I understand exercising is supposed to be tiring and push your body to limits in order to break through those limits and that's all well and good, but I don't like working myself to near death in order to achieve a goal that is not exactly what I want. I can go to the gym and lift weights, which is also very difficult, to the limits of my body and not feel like dieing when I am done. I still feel like I got a great exercise and it's more in line with my goal of building muscle and getting stronger. I decided to try the workout plan I did while I was in Turkey. I put on about 18lbs of muscle in 3 months with this workout and I am hoping to do it again. It focuses on strength training and the workouts are only 30-40 minutes 5 days a week compared to 60-90 minutes 6 days a week. It does not include any cardio, but I plan doing that myself through swimming and mountain bike riding. As the summer progresses we will post up results.

Well I guess that is enough blabbing for now. I am going to go eat breakfast again and get ready to go to church and start my day.

12 Days

Over 20 years ago, I began my formal education. In 12 days, I will finish it. A long way from my striking performance of "Red bird, red bird, what do you see?" at my preschool graduation, this one will feature a visit from my parents, a grown-up party (we are serving appetizers!), and the satisfaction of never doing homework again.

Don't get me wrong, I am not done learning by any means. I would love to take more classes, but because I want to. Photography, art, theatre, maybe even a theology class here and there. But the mandatory, life-controlling aspect of attendance, papers, and group projects will be a thing of the past! Somehow I managed to 3 vacations this summer to make up for the past 6 years of being in college. I looking forward to spending time with my friends. But most of all, even if I am not on a Caribbean island or the east coast, I get to finally see Jason again!!! After a handful of hours a week, we will actually have the time to jsy watch a movie, actually go when people ask us to have dinner with them, or just do nothing, because we can! Now Jason will still have classes next semester, but the chance of us being home at the same time will rise dramatically since just one of us will be mentoring, attending two college campuses, trying to do homework for all those classes, and oh, yeah, working full time! He is such a hard worker and I am so proud to call him my husband. 

This is only a season and it has been and educational one (not just because of school either..) I think we have learned to depend on each other, but most importantly to depend on God to be everything for us. Marriage does not complete you as a person and it was never intended to. It enhances your strengths and teaches you to improve on your weaknesses, so that you may serve God even more as a team. 

And that's what I think about that...

Money Money Money

Dave Ramsey just finished up a 3 week money and the bible series at church. It was a really good series and I am sure it gave some great guidance to thousands who watched it. Stemming from the series Lifechurch is now offering Financial Peace University which is Dave's "learn about saving, getting out of debt, inversting and giving class". I began going last night. It will be a 13 week class held every wednesday night. It looks like a lot of it will be principles I have already been exposed to and am currently following. I need direction with investing and budgeting every month.

I set us up with Dave's online budget program and it looks like it will work well for us. It will just be a matter of us following it by planning ahead for all purchases and using cash instead of the debit card. I just set up a couple money market accounts and opened up a Roth IRA for Lindsay so now we have a couple of good savings vehicles and we both have IRA's.

I am really excited to get going on this budget and investing. I am tired of being so non-organized with our money. We will now be able to be very purposeful with our spending and giving. It will be a little more work, but definitely worth it.

Everything else is going pretty well. I started getting a sore throat yesterday and it is worse this morning so that is not looking good. I am taking my final test for my pilot application. It is the TBAS. It is basically a computer/simulator game to test my hand eye coordination and ability to multi-task. I am pretty confident about it. I will be taking that tomorrow around 1300 and would appreciate any prayers you could toss up on my behalf. Thanks.

That's it for now. I am off to go make some breakfast and get ready for school.

Winter is here...again?

Hey, Lindsay here. I know I started this blog, but Jason has done such a great job updating it...

So we are just sitting here this evening watching Friends and waiting for it to SNOW already! Will this be Blustery Blizzard 2009?!? It hasn't impressed me yet... I guess if it does get bad, you can blame me because I put my winter clothes away last weekend. Sorry 'bout that...

The graduation countdown is at 42 days!!

Quick Update

I have a lot of homework to do so this will be quick. School started up again this week and is in full swing. All of the homework I was going to do over spring break and surprisingly enough didn't do, is now due tomorrow. Wow I think there was just a high speed pursuit past our neighborhood. Cool.

Lindsay has sponsored a local stray dog and is feeding it vanilla wafers and water. It is a very shy dog and won't actually come up to anyone but will certainly eat our food. Hopefully its owner will find it soon.

I finally think Porsche (our car) is going to be ok. I replaced the last motor mount and flushed the radiator. The violent shaking we had in reverse is now for the most part gone. She still only has about 50 horsepower but I don't think there is much we can do about that.

My boss is working elsewhere for the next two weeks and then taking vacation for a week so I am in charge at work which isn't really a big deal. It will just be a little more difficult to keep up with everything being one man down. Oh well just another example of wal-mart tacking on extra responsibility without proper compensation. We watched a Wal-mart Hate video in my Labor Relations class yesterday. I found it to be pretty humorous, but also mostly true.

I don't know anything further on my becoming a pilot process. The person who is supposed to get me started with it didn't really know what to do, so she is going to find out and then get back to me. I will keep you updated as I progress.

Well that is all I can think of for now so time to begin my homework.

Finger wag at KFC

Well today was a lot of fun. At least for me it was. Lindsay got up and went to work around 9:00 and won't get home until probably 11:00 or midnight. That's dedication! Me on the other hand got and went to my men's group and watched/discussed a video on Nick Vujicic. www.lifewithoutlimbs.org Check him out. My brother and I then drove around for 2 hours and found the middle of nowhere. Luckily this just happens to be where my dad now lives. Okay so it's not exactly in the middle of nowhere, but could definitely play the part in a movie or something.

We started off chatting and playing catch up. Then we moved on to the man stuff. We brought out the firearms, ammo and empty cans. By the time we were done we had made christmas ornaments for the whole foxworthy family. It was then time to unload the dirtbike and have some fun with it. That was cut short though. We need to fill it with brake fluid but once reaching the master cylinder saw that the old brake fluid had gelled up inside cylinder and probably brake lines as well so our plans are going to have to wait. We also noticed that the left side fork seal busted on the ride up there so there was fork oil leaked out in the bed of the truck. We puttered around the yard a little bit just for a tease, decided it needs more work and money than we want to put into it so we will probably sell it, and then loaded it back up. We headed home shortly thereafter. It was a lot of fun and I wish I had more time to go up there to hang out, but for now I must concentrate on school. This summer should allow for several day trips up there for some grilling, shooting and riding.

On our way home we stopped at KFC for dinner. After a 20 minute wait for them to take orders from and feed the local basketball team we placed our orders, got our food and sat down to eat. It has been a long time since I have eaten at KFC but I always remember thier biscuits with honey being delicous so I was looking forward to that. After pouring the honey on my biscuit and devouring the bottome half I realized it was meeting the expectations my memory had placed on it. I glanced at the honey packet and read it more closely. It read "Honey Sauce" ingredients: High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sugar, honey and caramel coloring. Well I found out what my taste buds were trying to tell me. The HONEY was not honey. It was corn syrup which tastes like very watered down honey with a hint of caramel coloring. I was quite disappointed and thought I should share with you so you do not get deceived as I did.

Well spring break is over in a few hours and it will be missed but summer break is only 6 weeks away. Keep praying for us during this final stretch so Lindsay will be done and I will be but 1 semester away from freedom.

Long day....

I never would have thought one of my busiest days of the year would be during spring break, but I think it was. Yesterday....all my troubles seemed so far away. That just popped into my head so I thought I should share it. Anyway yesterday was a very busy day for the both of us. My day started at 0400 and I arrived to work at 0515. We were preparing for our annual inventory so it was a very busy day but we got it all done. I went home, loaded my bicycle up in the truck and went out to ride the trails for a bit. On my way home from riding Linz called and asked if I wanted to come up to The Sand Plum and help them prepare for today. Being the loving and self sacrificing husband I am, I cheerfully obliged. After taking a shower and grabbing something to eat I made my way to The Sand Plum not entirely knowing what I was getting into. I was expecting 2-3 hours of this and that cleaning jobs. Well we finally got out of there about 0130 acheing, sore, and exhausted. Props to Linz, because she had been up there since 1000 moving/haning stuff, cleaning and decorating. It was fun and we got a LOT done, but I wasn't quite ready for all of that after working and exercising earlier in the day. To top off the night I got pulled over no more than 2 minutes after heading home. It was just because my tail light was out so no ticket or anything. We eventually made it home about 0210 and in bed about 0245.

Thankfully I was able to sleep in until almost 1100 but poor Linz was up about 0630 to go to some marriage/wedding meeting-seminar-show-thing. That is actually what is was called. She will be working until 1700 today and then coming home to do homework. I know she must be exhausted today but sounded peppy on the phone. I am well rested and was able to get the neglected house in order today.

It was really cool seeing Lindsay working her butt off and enjoying every minute of it. :) That job has been such a blessing for us, especially her. After my short time up there I can see why she devotes so much time to it. Larry and Michelle (Lindsay's bosses) are awesome and have an amazing vision for The Sand Plum, but there is a TON of work to do before it comes to pass. Lindsay enjoys being a part of that, making decisions and having input, and seeing the process unfold over time.

Our next 20 years.....

Ok... so I realize it has been a few weeks since we last posted, but no fear we are here. There really has not been a lot of new happenings going on. We are just starting spring break and love it. We had some friends over last night and made smores in the back yard. It was a beautiful night and the smores (all five of them) were delicious. I usually have pretty good self control but when I get a stick in my hand with a bag of marshmallows and a fire going, it takes everything but an act of God to get me to stop. I LOVE toasted marshmallows and putting them between chocolate and graham crackers is just too much to resist. Last night was just a nice tease of what it's like not having to mess with school.


Lindsay is still on par to graduate this May. YEAH!!!! I should be graduating this December. YEAH!!!! I will be commissioning next May. YEAH!!!! We are down to 14 months before some pretty dramatic changes in our lives. We are both extremely excited to see what exactly they will be.

I am currently in limbo waiting to find out what my job in the Air Force will be. I submitted my form today that tells what I want to do and the higher ups will cross reference that with what the Air Force needs me to do and hopefully come up with a match. At least I think that is how it works. I am really hoping none of that matters though...

There really isn't an officer job that I am excited about doing because most of them are basically office jobs (which is like telling Marilyn Monroe to be a rapper.) I have known this since I first started ROTC, so I have been praying for quite some time about this decision and as of Wednesday night I feel that God is leading me to be a pilot.

I have always dreamed of being a pilot, but never thought I was good enough, so I never even considered pursuing the possiblity. After Lindsay and I talked about it for awhile and I researched online, I really feel this is where God wants me to go. I have been on cloud 9 since then!! To hear that God wants me to pursue my ultimate dream and that it aligns with His will in our lives is the eptiome of good news.

I will fill out an application next Tuesday and then just wait to hear if they have accepted me as a pilot or not. I will keep you updated. Please keep me in your prayers that I am seeking God's will and not my own.

Well, it is that time of year again when the sun is shining down it's warmth, the birds are singing, and the grass is growing. I have to get outside and fire up the lawn mower for the first time this year. I actually enjoy cutting the grass most of the time. Lindsay is at work and I am off to enjoy the beautiful weather. See ya.


(That could be me.)

Somethings don't mix.

Hello all,
Okay so my usual workday morning routine begins with getting pushed out of bed by my sweet and loving wife as I then make my way to the bathroom to grab my robe. I go to the kitchen spend the next 20 minutes or so making a very elaborate and delicious breakfast to energize me for the next 4 hours or so until I eat again on my break at work. Upon completion of breakfast I curl up on the couch with my freshly brewed coffee and begin a little quiet time of prayer and reading. This usually goes without complication and then I lose the robe, get dressed and ready for work.

A couple weeks ago I woke up one Monday morning and began my routine. Everything was going great. I finished up my omelet and toast, grabbed my cup o' joe and made my way to the couch where my bible was open and waiting. I began reading in John I believe and was having a difficult time really waking up and keeping my eyes open. As I am sitting there holding my cup of coffee over my lap, I decided to lay my head back against the couch for whatever reason. Well sure enough I was just comfortable enough to doze off for a few more minutes of precious sleep.....except I didn't get a few minutes. I fell asleep just long enough for the muscles in my right hand to relax, therefore releasing my cup of coffee.

Now let's recall a few details.
1. I was only wearing a robe.
2. I was holding the coffee over my lap.
3. My cup of coffee was no longer being supported.

1 + 2 + 3 = My burning loins! Yes I poured my hot coffee on my unprotected and unsuspecting loins. This of course immediately awakened me to the thought that I had wet myself. I quickly realized that was not the case, but did not feel much relief when I realized what really happened. I have since changed my morning routine and it keeps a deliberate separation of coffee and crotch.

EXTREME!!!

Linz and I dread getting up in the morning, layering up, driving to the gym to get sweaty, walking back to the car dripping with sweat in 20 degree weather and then driving back home to get ready for the day. Can you blame us? I didn't think so. We decided to try an at home workout plan. We bought http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/p90x.do?code=P90XDOTCOM after hearing many great reviews on it. It is a 90 day program we are supposed to do 6 days a week for anywhere from 1 hour to 1.5 hours. It involves resistance training, cardio, flexibility, martial arts and yoga. It defines FULL BODY workout. We started on Tuesday and started regretting it Wednesday. It is INTENSE! Yesterday morning I was acheing from every single muscle in my body, even the ones that just started growing since we started the workout. We are only on day 5 but we will keep you updated as we progress through the program and if there is enough difference between the before and after pics we might even post them. I am pretty optimistic about getting some good results just after these first few workouts we've done.

After all of the ice we have had this week I decided to wash my truck now that the roads were dried up. Good news, my truck is shiny white again. Bad news, I locked my keys in my truck at the car wash. :( I had about 30 minutes to stand there and polish up the water spots until my spare key arrived.

More bad news, as I was leaving the car wash I saw a wise man (in his 60's) slip on the ice and slammed his head on the ground. He was laying there motionless so I stopped and got out of my truck to run to him. He was bleeding out of the back of his head so I called 911 as his wife came running over. We waited there until EMSA came and helped them load him up. I think he was ok, but his wife wanted him to go to the hospital just to get checked out. She was very upset and crieing while he was cracking jokes lieing on the ice bleeding from his head. I did my best to comfort her which she appreciated and I think everyone was ok in the end.

Linz was working at the Sand Plum all day giving soon to be brides tours of the building. I am so glad she has a job in which she loves what she is doing. I am very proud of the hard work and dedication she puts into it. It's awesome to see God working in her and developing her skills and character through her different jobs and experiences.

We have made slight decor adjustments in the house, thanks to Ikea. They are not complete but will be soon hopefully. Of course pictures will be posted upon completion.

See ya.

Date Night

Linz and I took some much needed time to ourselves last night. We went out to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. I think it is safe for me to say this is Linz's FAVORITE restaurant. I had never actually been there before last night and it wasn't my first choice, but I also didn't really care too much as long as we got some good food. We loaded up in Porsche and drove our somewhat dressed up selves to the restaurant. I dropped off Linz and then hid Porsche in the back of the parking lot. Last night was in the 20's with pretty high winds so I didn't waste anytime making my way to the entrance.

Once inside it was only about a 20 minute wait and much warmer. We enjoyed an amazing dinner without the distractions of homework, weddings, kids (kaitlyn), cooking or cleaning. We both had our fill of appetizer bread and then boxed up half of our meals including cheesecake. It made for a good lunch today. Here we are last night.

Not a whole lot out of the norm happened this week. Lots of work for Linz and lots of school for me since ROTC started this week. I am the Special Projects Officer this semester which should be much easier and less time consuming than my squadron commander job last semester. So far I have had ample time to do homework and odd jobs around the house so I am really hoping this semester stays this way, but I don't really look for it to.

Linz has been extremely busy this week with work from all of the bridal shows they have been going to. Lots of work means lots of money, but also means lots of weddings being booked which means a lot more work in the future. Linz is going to work on some kind of work schedule so she will actually have down time.

The semester is starting off good so far and hopefully we can keep it under control.

Online Money Saving Opportunities

I just want to post up a few web sites for you online shoppers to check out.

http://www.1saleaday.com/ - They have one really good deal every day that changes at midnight. I believe shipping is $5.99 per item but there are still some great deals.

http://www.woot.com/ - They also have one really good deal every day and it is typically electronics.

http://dealnews.com/?ref=woot-flash-09-DN - This one takes a few minutes to look through but you can find some awesome deals there as well. I just used a coupon code from there to get an extra 50% off Old Navy clearance items which were already 70% off.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ - This site offers up free software everyday. I believe it is a different program everyday and it's free if you want it. Each program is only free for the one day though, so don't wait.

http://wine.woot.com/ - I don't really know how much different wines cost but these are supposed to be good deals as well.

When you are purchasing something online type in "(company selling the item) coupon code" in google and it will pull up coupons that other people have used when purchasing from that same company. I can always at least find a 5% off coupon just by doing a quick search.

Hope this helps.

We knew it wouldn't last.....

the Christmas break that is. School has now started once again and once again our lives are filled with ridiculously expensive books that don't get used as much as thier price tag would warrent, hours of coffee downing lectures, more homework and group projects than we care to list and of course tuition and fees. This is all in addition to that little thing we all like to partake in called LIFE.

Yes this semester will be very busy for us both, especially since Lindsay is working more than ever and we are both attending two different Universities, but it will be the last one for Lindsay and I know that this too shall pass. We will just take it one week at a time with the support of our awesome lifegroup, family and friends.

A quick recap on the last week of events for us:
1) My knee is much better, but is still only at about 70% maybe.
2) I rear ended an Accord in the truck at a stop sign, but no damage was done and I have heard nothing from the owner so hopefully I am in the clear.
3) We have been keeping Kaitlyn for a couple days at time, giving us our first taste of parenthood.......I am soooooo not ready! Kaitlyn is an amazingly well behaved and smart child, but even she almost wears me out. 2 thumbs up to you parents!!(even though I know Lindsay and I were the most well behaved and sweet children EVER)
4) We really want to go on a mission trip this year but don't know where to yet so if you come across any good ideas let us know. We would like to leave the country, but are not necessarily set on it.
5) Lindsay knocked out 2 intercession classes worth 3 credit hours. Way to go her!
6) We have a problem of sorts with our plumbing. Our toilets just don't quite have the flushing power they used to so Jack (our landlord) is coordinating with the plumber to come take a look. Hopefully that gets resolved before our plungers need replaced. :) I hope that wasn't too much info for ya.
7) We bought the Louie Giglio "Passion" series dvd's and are discussing those at lifegroup. He tries to put in perspective just how INDESCRIBABLE our God is. I would highly recommend at least watching "Indescribable" and "How Great is Our God". I believe 268store.com is the cheapest place to purchase them.

That is about all we can think of for now and it's past our bedtime so I will end it here.

Oh, one more thing. The Lord has really been telling me that I need to work on establishing new relationships with people I am around on a regular basis but don't typically interact with. There are several co-workers that I would love to witness to or invite to church but I have never really talked with them before so I am going to focus on trying to establish a foundational relationship with them so they might have a more open mind when I mention Jesus or chuch in a conversation. This also applies to school. I need to at least build some type of relationship with the students around me so they would be more open to accepting a church invite. Please pray that I will be sensitive to the Spirit prompting me to talk with others and give me the courage to initiate that conversation.

Good Night.

I am too tired to proofread this so I apologize for mistakes.

Medical Marvels!!!

As some of you know I love motorcycles but seem to have a difficult time keeping the rubber side on the road. Well my brother and I went to look at a dirtbike we were considering purchasing and, to cut to the chase, I wrecked the thing before we even bought it. I was only going 7-10 mph and didn't damage the bike, but learned a valuable lesson that dirt tires don't grip pavement when leaned over in a corner so it's best to stay off the gas until the bike is more upright. Anyway I managed to bang my right knee up pretty good to the point where I couldn't bend it the next morning when I tried to get out of bed......Not cool!

On a side note. I am not real big on going to the doctor or taking medicine. It just seems to be a waste of money most of the time unless you know something is broken. I typically just go to http://www.webmd.com and diagnose myself. It's much cheaper, but you don't get a doctor's note for work.....that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Anyway so I follow webmd's directions: R-I-C-E Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevate.....except I neglected the compression part. The mishap occurred on thursday and saturday it felt like it was getting better so I didn't bother worrieing about and was going to suffer through the mild pain and let it run its course.

Today at work I started thinking about what might happen if it heals wrong and then I am stuck with a screwed up knee for the next 75 years. That means no air force, no motorcycles, no traveling and I am stuck at wal-mart FORRRREEEEVVVEERRRRRRR(in the voice of the boys from "Sandlot"). So at the thought of my whole life being ruined I broke down and bought a brace, fully not expecting it to help one bit.

I must say I now have more open mind about off the shelf rehab products. The moment I put it on the stiffness and pain went away. I walk with a more pronounced limp, but I'm okay with that. I don't quite know why a little compression makes such a big difference, but I am a believer in R-I-C-E and the miracle brace. That's $14 I wish I would have spent on Friday.

I am going to go focus on the Rest portion again while you enjoy some pics from our cruise. http://www.charles-roe.com/gallery2/v/Cruise2008/

Happy New Year!!!

I hope you all brought in the new year with a ton of fun, we sure did. We had a few friends over to the house for the celebration. We made pizzas, well Carl and Ashley made pizzas while the rest of us enjoyed their labor. I tried artichoke hearts for the first time....not too impressed. They rank just under mushrooms on my list of acceptable foods, not that you know where fungi ranks but anyway. The pizzas were really good as was the wine and champagne. We spent the evening laughing histerically as we played "Battle of the Sexes". Here are a few snapshots of the evening.Carl the Italian Pizza Boy

How am I supposed to know who/what "Marie Claire" is?

Lindsay, Ashley and Cheryl getting ready for the countdown.

Charles aka "Bendy Boy" enjoying his last few chews of some great pizza!

Laughing HYSTERICALLY all night! We are just funny people with FUNNY friends!

CRUISE PICS COMING SOON!