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.