Saturday, December 31, 2005

States I've visited

Thanks to Jim Walton for this. 14 states out of 50. I guess I need to travel more. Long way from Jim's 33 :)
dj




create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Friday, December 23, 2005

Merry Christmas

Well, my time online will be very little over the weekend so I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

Our year this year has been very eventful

  1. We bought our first home. Actually a town home, but it’s ours.

  2. With the purchase of the town home, it meant a move to another city. We have family that moved here ahead of us so it helps us with the kids.

  3. Different job at work. Same manager, just a different team. Nice to have a change of pace.

  4. My brother and his wife had their first child.

  5. Got into the swing of things at our new church. After taking about 10 months off from working in a church environment, I jumped in head first to work in Technical services and IT.

Anyway, hope your Christmas is the greatest ever.

dj

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Dadbloggers

I have been invited to be a part of a new blog for fathers called dadbloggers. DadBloggers is a community blog by Dads, for Dads. We have a diverse team of regular contributors who give a male perspective on parenting and family relationships. I have submitted my first entry and you can read it here.
Dj

Friday, December 09, 2005

Prayer request

Please take a minute to pray for some friends of mine that I have yet to meet face to face. I am part of a Churchmedia forum and a family on there just lost their house due to fire. You can read about it here. Randy probably played a big part in saving his kids lives that night. Rachel is or is about to be discharged, but Randy and Noah are still not ready. Both though have been upgraded to serious condition.  

dj

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Birthday Party



Well, the party went well. We had a Baby Einstein theme. Misty and her aunt spent about 6 or 7 hours fixing the cakes. The twins each had their own small cake that Colby decorated and they ate them as we expected. Gabe destroyed his eating it and Zach picked and ate piece by piece. Now, if you look through the photos on Flickr, you will see that Zach later on decided that his cake needed to be just crumbs so he crumbled it up pretty good.
After the cake, they got to open up their presents and it seemed that everything was a hit with them. Misty gave everyone a sheet of paper and envelope to write some comments and seal it up so they can open it up on their 18th birthday.
We haven't put up our Christmas Tree yet. We didn't want it to interfere with their party so I guess tomorrow we start dragging the tree out tomorrow after church.
dj

Happy Birthday Zach and Gabe

Just wanted to post a quick Happy Birthday to my twins, Zach and Gabe. I will post some pictures later. One year old today (
Dj

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Jury excuse

I want to see this excuse out of jury duty. LOL
dj

Paul's interview

A good friend of mine, Paul Podraza was recently interviewed by Church Production Magazine about his job at Mountaintop Community Church in Birmingham, Alabama. He put the interview on his blog. You should go read it and find out how God changed the direction of his career.

Failing Man 101

Well, I guess I failed Man 101 the other night. I was working on putting up our Christmas lights on the house when I went to grab my roll of duct tape and realized I don’t own any. How could I not own duct tape. I did find some electrical tape and that is working on a temporary basis. I will have to re-tape a couple of places once I get some.
This is our first place we have owned so I never felt comfortable putting up a lot of outside lights before this year so I never ran into this issue before. I also don’t own a ladder of any type so I was wondering how I would put up some icicle lights. I found a device at Lowe’s which contains a pole and come clips for the gutter. The clip screws onto the end of the pole and then the lights connect to the clip and then you reach the clip up to the gutter and slide the clip down onto the gutter and then unscrew the pole from the clip. Works pretty good. I tried to find it on the Lowe’s website, but couldn’t. Works pretty good.
I ended up putting 2 strands of icicle lights and a row of candy canes in front. I had a strand of lights for the window but they were not long enough so I may have to come back and put those in later. I did make arrangements to be able to add them later with no problems.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Happy Thanksgiving

Just sitting here at my parents with my family and my brother and his family. Just wanted to drop a quick note wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Don't eat to much turkey. You might end up falling asleep on the couch or in a chair and have your picture taken like my dad and brother LOL

dj

Happy

Happy New Year :) Hope your 2007 is a great one.

Misty and I stayed up and watched the ball drop. Colby stayed up also and we played Yahtzee twice. Colby beat us both times. Prety lucky for a four year old. Not only did he beat us, the first game his total was just a 100 points less than mine and Misty's total. Gee Wiz. Anyway, we was more than happy to play again today :)

A couple of thing for 2007 for me, get back to losing weight and getting ckcan.com off the ground. I need to come up with ways of getting my name out there so I can get some clients.

Anyway 2006 was a good year. Colby turned 4 and the twins turned 2. The twins are professional two-year-olds by the way. Especially Gabe:) I took Colby to his first baseball game. Celebrated my 8th year of being married to Misty. Changed jobs at work which gave me some "mangement" duties. Met a couple of fellow bloggers, Jim Walton and Tony Dye.

Not all was good though. The team I was on at work at the start of the year lost our team lead after a handgun accident. That was a hard week for us and we still miss Mitch. My best friend's dad passed away after battling an illness for a while.

Well, here's to a great 2007 and plenty of Bowl Games this week :)

dj

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Date nights and fall

It’s been a pretty good couple of weeks. I have had two date nights with Misty including one where we got to stay out over night. My parents came up and watch the boys while we went out shopping and had dinner. It was good to get away. I feel it’s very important for us to get out once and a while and my parents help out when they can. They like it also as they get to spend a lot of time with the boys.
Colby especially loves it. When we got back, he looked at us and said he didn’t want them to leave :) Mom and dad were upstairs when we got back and we asked Colby what he had ate while we were gone. “I ate chips, I ate cookies and I ate candy.” Well, it’s not all perfect.
I guess they will get to see plenty of the boys in the next month or so. We are going to their house for Thanksgiving and then the weekend after that are the twins first birthday. Two weeks after that we are going down to their house for Christmas so the boys can see their tree and lights. The weekend after that is Christmas so I figured they will be up again.
Fall and the end of the year is always busy for us so we are always looking forward to the new year. Who knows what it will bring this go around?  

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Family Watchdog

After having kids, there are some things I think about that I never thought of before. Unfortunately, sex offender registries are one of those things. There is a new website out that compiles all of the data from the state’s data and uses Google Maps to create a map of offenders in your area. All you do is enter your address and it will do the rest. It’s called Family Watchdog. The mapping service is free, but for $18/year, you can have them email you when an offender moves into your area.

I hate thinking of stuff like this, but Misty worked in social services for a couple of years and I have heard general stories on how kids are treated and I can’t even think how bad some of these are. Misty checks the list in our area every so often so I can see us signing up in the future for the email notification..

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Template change

I decided a change was in order so I changed my template. I was afraid I lost my comments again, but reinstalling Haloscan into my new template brought them back :) Haloscan works pretty good as a third party app for comments and trackbacks.
dj

Friday, November 04, 2005

A real big Opps

Thanks to my buddy Dan Roth for pointing this one out. You have to read the first paragraph real close to see the mistake. I don’t know how long this will be up so better read fast (

Family Time

It was just a simple request. Just a “Dad, come down here and play blocks with me” Thursday nights is my men’s group meeting from church. We are currently studying “Love and Respect” by Emerson Eggerichs. It’s a good book by the way. Our current study time is every other week. One week we discuss the book and the next week is just an open week. Some of the men’s wives also meet together every other Thursday so the nights they meet is just an open week for us so some of the guys can stay home with the kids while their wives go to their group.
Anyway, this was an open week so after dinner I had 1 ½ hours before my group was to meet. So, I decided to get down in the floor and play with Colby some. Well, this grew into playing blocks with Colby, Zach and Gabe with Misty being down there with us. I was having so much fun with the boys that I decided to not attend my group. It’s not very often that I get this kind of time and I wanted to take in every bit of it. The tv got turned off around 6:30 and didn’t get turned back on. It was just me being in the floor with three boys using me as a jungle gym at times. And if you have ever had a 11 month old, you know how much drool is being flung around. Taking into account, I have twins. Needless to say, I feel like I took a bath sometimes last night, but I just count it as a badge of fatherhood. (
I don’t know for sure, but I think I learned a lot more by staying at home last night.
Dj

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Halloween


Well, another Halloween has come and gone and still Colby won't go Trick or Treating. Even the free candy won't do it. He went to one house last night and after getting candy, looked at me and said he wanted to go home. Living in a new sub-division we didn't know how many kids we could expect. We didn't want to have a lot of candy left so we didn't buy to much. In the end, we bought way to much. We had a total of 2 kids. Yes two. It's a new area and downtown had something going on for the kids so that may have played a part. Maybe next year Colby will be more into it. It was better this year than last as he had a total fit on us.
Also, there was a 1st grader here in Jessamine Co. who was hit by a car going to a local church's Trunk or Treat and is in critical condition at UK Hospital. Just pass along a quick prayer for him and his family.
dj

Monday, October 24, 2005

Comment section down

Well, I got an email from Jim Walton letting me know that my comment section is not working. I am using Haloscan for my comments and there appears to be a problem on their end. Their forum is full comments from users this morning talking about the problem and it seems that they know about it. They posted in reply back to one user asking some questions, but nothing else.
So, if you are commenting on any of my post, either give it some time to come back up or you can go ahead and email me your comments and I will post them when it comes back online. Thanks and Sorry :(
dj

UPDATE: I may have found a workaround so go ahead and try to post a comment.
dj

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Three-year-old and Communion

Let me ask you a question and see what you think of this. How much does a three-year-old know about what Jesus did for us? With Misty working part time at church and me working as a greeter on the Sunday mornings I am now working technical services, we are at church for three services. For a three-year-old, that’s a long time. So, we have started bringing Colby into main service with us for the last service which is the service we attend on a regular basis.
The last two weeks, Colby has wanted to Take Communion. Really he wants to do what we are doing. At first I think he just wanted to eat with us. The first week, Misty allowed him to have a piece of the bread we use. Just the little wafer squares. Afterwards, Misty explained to him that we do that because Jesus is in our hearts and we do it to remember Him.
This weekend, I was not in service, but Misty told me later that he wanted to do it again and this time he wanted to do both. Bread and juice. Misty asked him why and he told her that because Jesus is in our hearts and we are remembering him.
How can you argue with that? She decided then to allow him. We talked and I pretty much said the same thing, how can you argue with that. We talked and decided that we don’t want to stop him. We don’t want to make it a bad experience. People around us in the next several weeks may think we are crazy, but we don’t want it to be something he gets mad at us about. Especially since he knows why we do it. At least part of it anyway.
Yea, I know he doesn’t fully understand that Jesus died for us on the cross and what He went through for our sins. But I have to think that he has a really good start and wants to be a part of it at such a young age.
I just hope we can continue to teach him exactly what it means.
Dj

Monday, October 17, 2005

Heaven just got a little bit bigger

I’ve been waiting on posting this to get more accurate numbers, but here it is. The weekend of Oct. 7th and 8th was decision weekend for us at Southland. Our Sr. Pastor Jon Weece opened up the baptistery to anyone who wanted to accept Christ as their savior and be baptized. Well, the final number for the weekend. 132 including over 50 at our college aged service on Sunday night which went over 2 hours. On weekends I don’t work a camera for technical services, I work our first two services on Sunday mornings as a greeter along the side hallway which leads to our baptistery. It was amazing to see people come back and walk down the hallway knowing they were really walking to Heaven. I seen people walking their friends back with their arms wrapped over their shoulders. It was great to see couples going through baptism together. To see families and friends embrace each other afterwards, you just know that God is at work. To see perfect strangers congratulate each other knowing they just had a family reunion was amazing.
You just couldn’t help but feel God at work as you just kept seeing people making those life decisions. One guy walked past me when I was at one of the back doors and out into the hallway. He came back in a minute later and asked me where do they go for the baptisms and I asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes. I walked with him down the hallway and lead him to one of our decision counselors and she took him from there. For me to meet a perfect stranger and watch him become my brother in Christ was simply amazing. dj

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Email subscription

Feedburner has added a new email service for their feeds for email subscriptions. Just enter your email address in the blank in this post or in the side bar and anytime I post,it will email you the post.



Powered by FeedBlitz



Dj

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Leaf collection

The preschool program Misty teaches at and the boys attend is out of our church and is really a Mother Day Out program. Colby’s class gets “homework” once a week and when they complete it, they get a small toy out of a “treasure box”. This week, he was assigned a science project where he had to collect pairs of leaves and one leaf just on it’s own. They are going to take the leaves and make an Old Maid game out of them. The purpose is to show the different styles, shapes and colors of the leaves. Now, we just have to figure out where to get the leaves. He had to have 10 pair.
Off to the Arboretum at the University of Kentucky. It’s a pretty cool place with the different trees and plants growing there. They have a huge walking track with all the different trees growing around it.
Where was places like this when I was in high school and doing leaf collections?
Colby had a blast. It was cool to see him with his bag picking up leaves and putting them in the bag. We kept a separate folder for his project and Misty is going to make him a leaf book of the ones he collected. He ran from tree to tree picking up leaves and looking at them.
I also showed him some of the different nuts which grow on trees and we seen some squirrels collecting them. He took a couple of Walnuts and threw them into a wooded area for the squirrels to get. Of course he didn’t want to leave, but the twins were getting restless. It was well past their bedtime so we had to get them home.
I hope Colby always loves learning like he does now. He was having so much fun just taking it all in. We are going to have to come back in the spring when we have more time. We are going to take him to Boyd’s Orchard this weekend for a pumpkin and some apples.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Colby's night out

Every so often, Misty and I try to take Colby, our oldest son, out without his brothers so he gets our undivided attention. We did this last night for pizza, books and ice cream. It’s always fun when we do this as Colby is always coming up with something interesting to say or do. At the pizza place last night somehow or other, he got pizza sauce on the back of his shirt. Don’t ask me how, he just did it. After one slice of pizza, he decided he wanted a brownie like him mom had. He told me he wanted five in fact. Ahh, I don’t think so. So, I took one big brownie and split it into five pieces.
After the pizza, we went to the book store where they have a pond in the back and some ducks and fish. I had some crackers and Colby loved throwing the crackers in for the ducks and fish. I think he wanted to feed the fish more than the ducks, but the ducks were getting before the fish most of the time.
Inside the bookstore, they have a Thomas the Train table set up so he could play trains while Misty and I looked at some books. He didn’t want to look at any books. Misty tried to get him to look at a couple, but he was more interested in the trains and the castle. I guess the best part was when he asked me to get in the floor and play with the castle. I didn’t really do anything but just sit with him, which is really what he wants. I move a figure around here and there so he could knock them off of the castle.
Then off for some ice cream. He will only eat vanilla ice cream. No “pink” or “brown” as he says it. It took him forever and Misty finally had to make him stop as he was just barely eating it to take longer.
We then took a chance and took him to a pet store. Colby will not get around any animal if it’s loose. No pet at all which can drive you crazy. Misty found a book last night about sensitive children and you would think the person wrote the book about Colby, but more on that later after I get a chance to look at it. He did great in the store. We explained to him that the animals were locked up and couldn’t get to him. He was a little tentative at times, but made it through. We stopped before leaving to look at some cats the local shelter had there and one little white one came up to the window to Colby and was just playing away with him through the window. He said as we were leaving that he wanted a kitten.  I think we will try one where he can touch it first.
dj

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Confusing feed issues

Ok, maybe I’m confused a bit. I created a Feedburner feed for my page and it shows me how many people are using that feed. Everything shows that three people are using it. Thanks to public blogs with bloglines, I know the three people. Or at least I thought I did. Lurking through some public blogs on bloglines, I have ran across a fourth person. Is it just they haven’t logged into bloglines in a while or what?
I think that is how Feedburner works that the numbers are who have pinged your feed in the last 24 hours. Just one more thing about how the web and blogs work.
dj

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Date night

Just got back from a date night with Misty. My parents watched the boys while we went out and had dinner just the two of us. Nothing special, Ruby Tuesdays and the shopping at Dollar Tree and Walmart. Funny, it just doesn't get any better.
dj

Friday, September 30, 2005

Love walk

Misty is taking part in Love Walk 2005 for the local pregnancy help center here in Central Ky. She sent out an email to family and friends asking for sponsors so I figured I would post here and see if anybody wanted to help out. If you do, just email me and I will get what she needs from you. I copied and pasted her email below so you will know what it goes for. Thanks.
dj


Dear Friends and Family,

I will be participating in the AA Pregnancy Help Center Love Walk 2005 on October 15. I am sending this email to ask for sponsors for this event. If you would like to sponsor, you can give any amount, the sponsor sheet says $15, $20, $30, $50, or other so I’m sure any amount would be appreciated. Just reply to me via email or and I’ll get the rest of the information from you that I need. The agency itself will send out billing letters.

Here’s what Love Walk 2005 supports
By walking or sponsoring a walker you are giving your support to a well established ministry. Since 1985 they have saved the lives of over 1,500 children.
They offer:
Loving counsel for life affirming choices, not judgment
Medical care (pregnancy tests, ultra sound, pre-natal vitamins)
Material help-maternity and baby clothes, diapers, etc.
Emotional care with professional counselors
Spiritual support, prayer, free Bibles, the Good News
24 hour hotline
Long term counseling for adoptions, parenting, post-abortion healing
Abstinence education for schools and churches
Housing alternatives
Community referrals
Public education on abortion, sexual health and adoption

Thank you all for your consideration in this matter.

Sincerely,
Misty

Monday, September 26, 2005

Being part of something big..

My buddy Paul yesterday posted on his blog about a lady on his team at church and her asking about a video he had shot two years ago. It’s just one of those stories that you just have to go and read. Talking about being faithful to your call even when you don’t understand. You never know who you are going to run into and what their response will be. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple question.

Yet another tube update

Just got a call from Misty saying that Gabe’s appointment today showed his ear tube blockage has cleared up and no more follow-ups are needed. Praise God!!!

Friday, September 23, 2005

Hurricane Rita

I just talked to my friend in Texas who lives just off of the Gulf Coast. They were able to evacuate to Kerrville, Texas and stay with the aunt of a fellow church member. They just moved to Texas within the last year so this is their first hurricane. Sounds like they got out of town before the evacuation was mandatory and able to avoid the traffic. They live in Victoria, Texas so the storm appears to be headed away from them.
dj

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Creating a XML page

I was wondering if anybody has any good documents on how to create their own XML file to use for a RSS Feed. I want to learn more about how to create one from scratch or use some software to do this. I want to be able to modify it some to include different items and graphics into the feeds so any feedback would be great. I have seen a couple of packages out there, Feed for All and RSSLIBJ.
I am sure there are others out there I just haven’t ran across them yet. So if you know of any, send me a link. Thanks.
Dj

Playoff time

Well, the playoffs really start for us this weekend. My Colonels are starting off rough this year at 0-3 with losses to Appy. State, Western Ky.( who are currently ranked #1 in 1-AA) and N.C.St. We are two fumbles and a bad snap away from 2-1 which really can drive a person crazy. We now have to win the OVC in order to make the playoffs so we start our march this weekend with Homecoming against Tennessee Tech. We need to not look past Tech to Jacksonville State who has won the league the last two years with us placing second each year. J-St. is picked to win again this year with us placing 2nd. But that’s why we play the games. I think as long as we can take care of the ball, we will do good and should beat Tech and then get ready for the game of the year.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

RSS feeds and tubes

It’s funny sometimes to watch the number of people who use feedburner to see my blog. About once a week, I get a third person who is using Firefox and its live bookmarks. You can just about count on it late in the week that the number jumps to 3 and then after a day or so, goes back down to two. And how sad is it that I only have 2. It’s not really, it’s just fun to watch and fun to just write these entries.
Tube update.
The twins had their checkup on their ear tubes the other day. Zach is doing good and won’t have to go back for any checkups as his well baby checkups with the pediatrician will take care of that. Gabe’s tubes were blocked with some fluid and some dried blood. The specialist was able to probe one of the tubes back open, but the other one he couldn’t. We have to administrator drops twice a day along with Hydrogen Peroxide with water once a day before the drops. Gabe will have to go back in 2 weeks to check back. Worse case is he has to have the tube surgery again. We hope that he doesn’t have to go through that again.
dj

Thursday, September 08, 2005

An exceiting Ho Hum week.

FOOTBALL IS BACK. A sure sign that fall is around the corner is football is back. My Colonels took it on the chin in their opening game and we will have to improve if we want to beat our in-state rivals, Western Ky. Especially at quarterback. Now, I am watching the NFL get started. My Sunday’s are now complete again. I know Misty is thrilled (please read sarcasm).
It’s been an interesting week. I can’t comment on a lot of it, but I have been able to mess around with some operating systems of my past, just newer versions. I have installed Tiger on a couple of machines at work and may switch my primary work pc over to a Mac G4 for a week or so. I just have to find the right software to install.
I have played with Mac OSX from time to time since it came out so I figured it was time to dive in and learn a lot more about it.
I may get to see Mike Breaux speak Friday night. I will know more Friday afternoon. He was the Sr. Pastor here at Southland before we started attending and is now at Willow Creek. Southeast Christian in Louisville is having their men’s retreat this weekend here in Lexington and a Friday of mine is looking at helping me out for Friday. I will wait and see.
Anyway, that’s been my week so far. Nothing big. Yet…
Dj

p.s. just heard Tim McGraw’s new version of Like it, Love it for the NFL. Anybody know if it’s online somewhere for free and legal download?

Friday, September 02, 2005

Hurricane video

If you are looking for a video to use this weekend concerning hurricane Katrina, then Keystone Church is the place to look. They have put together a picture montage of photos from the disaster and posted it in video format for download. Brian Burton at Keystone Church posted it on his blog. Thanks Brian.
Dj

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Online Utopia

My buddy Kevin Young has been writing about online communities and their ups and downs including his own personal experiences. I met Kevin through this community he talks about and it has greatly impacted my life as I have met friends now who I’m extremely happy to know. You can find the first part of the series here.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

A learning experience

Well, I guess I went and wiped out all of my comments on my blog. Ok, there were only three, but I did wipe them out. I was trying to teach myself something and added some stuff to my template to allow me to do trackbacks and it reformatted my comments. It’s ok, I have them in my email as I have Blogger email them to me when I receive one. It would have been nice if I would have noticed that it was going to delete them. I did have Haloscan backup my template so I might be able to bring them back in, but I probably won’t.
I will just call it a learning experience as I am still trying to learn the different aspects of blogging. One of these days I will break down and pay for a hosting provider and use one of the several blogging packages out there that has a lot of these features built in.
By the way, anybody have an idea on how to reduce the font size of my blogroll?
dj

Blogging church

Well, if your church is interesting in knowing how a blog can further promote your church and your vision, Brian Bailey and Terry Storch, two very enthusiastic bloggers, have created a new blog to promote their upcoming book about using a blog in church. You can see Terry's announcement here.
Quoted from Blogging Church, “This blog will serve as the starting point of our own conversation with all of you who share our passion for blogging, as well as those who are still skeptical. We want to hear your stories of how blogs have impacted your churches, the obstacles you have overcome, and the roadblocks that still stand in your way. This is a community effort and we look forward to your ideas, experiences, and criticisms.”
I can’t wait to see how other churches are using blogs and see what works and what doesn’t. They expect their book to be out next year and they have a podcast to describe the history and what to expect.
Dj

Monday, August 29, 2005

Super Sunday

What a Sunday. Six church services at five churches and only left my house for a couple of hours.  Ok, I didn’t really attend that many churches, but I did attend one and it wasn’t mine. I went to Southland Saturday night as my brother and his wife wanted to go and Misty had the night off. After going to dinner with them after church we got the twins to bed at 9:45 which is very late for them. So, I decided to stay home Sunday morning to let them rest as much as they could and not have to be drug back out.
I started by watching the service from Bethel Harvest here in Nicholasville. Technically they are located between Nicholasville and Lexington, but I think they are in the city limits of Nicholasville. After their service went off, I found Prestonwood Baptist in Plano, Texas just outside of Dallas, where Kevin used to be on staff. Prestonwood was part of the America at Worship program. After Prestonwood was Marble Collegiate Church in New York.
By this time the twins were waking up and after going upstairs to get them, I turned to the Southland Hour. We broadcast a week behind which was good for me as I missed all of last week to take the boys down to my parents house to give Misty a weekend break. I finished my morning marathon by watching my friends church in Lexington, Immanuel Baptist Church.
It was a good morning although I didn’t really get to see all of the broadcast due to watching the twins more of the morning. They didn’t get a good nap in so I was putting them to bed while Bethel was finishing and they were up before Southland came on but that’s another story. It’s interesting though to see how each church does things differently but still get across the same message. I wish I had gotten to see more, especially Marble Collegiate as it seemed their pastor was a really good speaker and teacher.
Now that’s five services from five churches. My friend who attends Immanuel was ordained as a deacon there Sunday evening so Misty and I attended his ordination service followed by a small fellowship time. It was good to see his family again. We practically grew up in each other’s home so our families are great friends with each other.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

More Instant messaging

Do I really need another instant message client? Google has pretty much turned on their instant message client and anyone with a gmail account has an account. I guess I am just weird in wanting to stay in contact with anyone I know. To an extent that is. I have accounts on Yahoo, MSN, AIM and now Google. Google is supposed to announce their messaging service on Wednesday and the rumor sites have been talking about it all day. Google must have turned the service on sometime tonight. I ran across a Slashdot article talking about it and found instructions to configure it for Trillian at Big Blue Ball

I guess it’s just something new to mess with and see who I can chat with on there.

Dj

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

New Direction?

Over the last month or so, I have really been reading other blogs, mainly in the area of IT in churches.  I love seeing how others working in IT have put their God given skills to help other ministries in their churches. Some of the blogs I have been reading are:
Jason Powell at Granger/
Terry Storch at Fellowship/ - although Terry is no longer in IT
http://www.churchnerd.com/blog/index.php?blog=1
http://churchtechmatters.com/
and http://www.betachurch.org/


Since moving to Nicholasville and working with Southland’s IT department, I have an urge if you will to move into that area. Where? Who knows? Only God does. I know that everything is in his time and the last week has really been frustrating. Not with just the timing, but other factors as well. Nothing bad, just a rough week. I feel like I am not doing enough for God in the IT area and have a desire to do it full time, just where?

Kentucky is not known for it’s IT hotbed of jobs, so is a move in order? In some ways I hope not as we just bought a town home here and would have to sell it. Not to mention the cost of moving and any other financial expenses.

I guess right now I am just looking for some clarity in my time with God which I need to do more of here lately. Three kids and ear tubes tend to take a lot of time away, but that’s not an excuse. I just need to take the time at work during lunch and just close my door to the world and just open up God’s word and let Him speak to me.
dj

ps I am trying the new Blogger tool for Word. Seems to work pretty good so far. I will see after I publish this post.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Success

Well, the twins ear tubes went in with no problems. In fact, Gabe only needed a bottle and about 10 to 15 minutes of sleep to recover. Zack on the other hand is still sleeping:) Both should be good to go after lunch and ready to face the world with no more ear aches. At least we pray no more. I just want to thank all out there for your prayers. You can tell they had plenty of prayer as neither one was fussy from hunger while waiting. Usually they are going crazy at 6:30 in the morning if they haven't ate. This morning at 8 they were fine.
dj

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Surgery moved up

Gabe was acting Monday night that his ears were bothering him so we have moved their surgery to this Thursday, Aug. 11th instead of waiting another week. If they feel good later that evening, we will attempt to go to the baby dedication at church. We will see :)
dj

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Left Over Vegetable Soup

2Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ, who loved you and gave himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins. And God was pleased, because that sacrifice was like sweet perfume to him. Ephesians 5:2 (NLT)

Time flies when you are having fun. It was three years ago today that my first son Colby was born. We had tried for about a 1 year or two to try and have a baby, but it just never worked out so we quit trying. We didn’t try not to have one, just quit trying to have one. I will never forget the day Misty told me and the following weeks as we waited to tell our families.

Over Thanksgiving weekend Misty was not felling good and felt sick. We didn’t think a lot about it that weekend, but we were starting to wonder. We decided to wait another week before we did anything to see if anything changed. I guess Misty just couldn’t wait :)

We had vegetable soup one night and the next evening when I came home, Misty met me at the door and all she said was we are having left over vegetable soup for dinner and I’m pregnant. Man, what a way to be greeted at the door.

We decided to tell our families over the Christmas holiday. We found a grandparent’s frame and put a note in it saying Merry Christmas mama and papa see you in Aug. and let my parents open it up as a Christmas gift. Misty took a similar note and attached it to a present for her grandmother. At this time, we still hadn’t been to the doctor’s office yet. That wasn’t until Jan. 4th.

I will always know that date as I keep the calendar page from my page a day calendar for that day. It was from the Life Application Study Bible calendar and the above verse was what was on the page.

The study notes for that day: “Just as children imitate their parents, we should imitate Christ. His great love for us led him to sacrifice himself so that we might live. Our love for others should be of the same kind – a love that goes beyond affection to self-sacrificing service. Let your love be self-sacrificing, like Christ’s.

One thing around our house is that it’s boring. Colby is always doing or saying something that will keep you laughing and sometimes, trying not to laugh as he is doing something he is not supposed to, but the way he says it just makes you turn your head. One day I was trying to get him to do something and he wanted to argue with me about it and he let me know. “I am arguing with you,” was his comment.

Kids always find ways to remind you that you are truly a parent. Colby is doing a great job with potty training and one evening at a restaurant, he reminded me again about parenthood. He just came back with Misty from the restroom and he let me and all of the restaurant know that he went. Misty told him to quit down some. He told her that he only told me. :)

Friday, August 05, 2005

Feed changes coming?

I am trying to learn different aspects of blogging so if you by any chance are subscribed to my feed through Blogger, don't be suprised if it goes away anytime soon. I am messing around with FeedBurner trying to figure it out :) So, please use the feedburner feed which you can find below in the sidebar. Thanks.
dj

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Surgery on the 18th

Well, the twins are set for ear tube surgery on the 18th. We have to be there at 6:30 a.m. which is not going to be fun. They can't eat anything after midnight and these two eat like crazy. After bottles at 10:30 at night last night, they both woke up hungery sometime or other, Zach at 3:30 and Gabe at 5:00. Once they really get hungery, they become unbearable. That waiting room is going to be very loud :( Hopefully, that will make them go first and we can get it over with.
dj

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Latest on ear infections


Ok, here is the latest. Zach now has a double ear infection which means tubes for him also. Both of the twins have appointments on Aug. 1 with the specialist. Right now with the meds, both are feeling great and are doing good. Our pediatrician said it rains in the just and the unjust and sometimes it floods :) We really like our doctors. It is part of a group. We have our favorite, but we will see anybody when he have to. The group makes it nice as you can get a Sunday morning appointment if you call in early enough. We have to had to do that once with Colby. It was probably an ear infection. Anyway, I will post more after their appointment. :)
dj

Monday, July 25, 2005

Good news, Bad news

Gabe's appointment with the specilist is Aug. 1. He is feeling better now after getting the antibotics. At first, he wasn't very reactive to some sounds which worried us some, but after the meds kicked in, he is back to himself. That makes us feel better and I am sure he feels much better. Which now we need to see if we can get Zach in with him. He woke up from his nap today with a fever and he has always been a bit behind with the ear infections. Zach has an appointment later today and we will see what they say.
dj

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

More ear tubes :(


Well time for ear tubes again. This time for the youngest of the twins, Gabe. He now has his fourth ear infection and he is only seven months old. He is miserable right now won't eat and can't sleep. You can tell his ears are bothering him. He's like his older brother and anytime he gets a stuffy nose and some drainage, time for the ears to get infected. We are hoping and praying that his hearing is not being affected. He doesn't seem to be as reactive as he was. Hopefully it's just swelling nothing more serious. Misty is going to call the specialist that performed Colby's surgery and get the ball rolling. I know it's tough on them, but if Gabe reacts like Colby did, then things will be hundreds time better for him in the long run. I know this type of surgery is done everyday, but a friend of mine once told me that minor surgery is surgery done on someone else's family. Once I know more, I will post it.

dj

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Bumping into God really hard.

42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.Acts 2:42-47 (NIV)

There are just some things you can’t keep to yourselves. I haven’t posted anything yet about our July 4th weekend service yet and I don’t know why. God was truly at work there. Our Executive Minister, Jim Burgen, went to Afghanistan with some others from our church and some from Southeast Christian in Louisville. They came back with some video footage and Jim talked about what it was like over there. Will your child take a drink of water which could kill them because of bacteria which can cause diarrhea, but because of living conditions can’t be cured. Land mines left over by the former Soviet Union shaped like children’s toys are still around.

After this, our Sr. Pastor, Jon Weece talked about giving to SOZO International which is the organization that Jim went with. He said on Saturday night that he wanted the church to give $25,000. Little did he or anyone know that God had other plans in store for the church.

A little boy came forward while Jon was speaking and laid a check on the stage. This started God’s plan as more people came forward to lay money down on the stage. Before things were done, a little over $27,000 was given. They made this a part of service for the rest of the weekend and when it was all said and done, over $142,000 was raised.

Now this in and of itself is amazing. Jim spoke the next week on the giving and said he hates when people say that God showed up today in church. He said that God is always there, we just happen to bump into Him pretty hard at times. But that is only the first part of God's work this week.

A lady my wife works with at church was called into their supervisor’s office Wednesday and she came out crying and carrying an envelope. Misty asked her what was wrong and she could only reply that she needed a hug. Now, our minds are thinking the same thing. She’s been fired. Misty then asked again and the lady replied that someone at the church had given her a card containing $1,000 knowing she could use it. They don’t know who it was other than God.

We are in the middle of a series on our core values which are based on Acts 2:42. The church back then as it was getting started, always helped each other out when needed. It’s great to see the church come forward and help others in need. When you see it, you just can’t help but let everyone know. After Misty told me this story about her co-worker, I had to tell someone. I told four people as soon as I could. It’s just something you can’t keep to yourself.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

More like my dad than I thought?

I had last week off from work on vacation, but I think I got more done in my life than I would ever got done at work. My whole life growing up I have heard stories about how my dad would always take me places while we lived just outside of Cincinnati. I have heard comments like, "He is going to wear the wheels out on that stroller."
I took Colby to his first movie at one of the local theaters on Tuesday. They show free kids movies on Tuesday and Wednesday's during the summer so we figured that would be a good way to see how he handles the theater. He did good. I was able to spend all day with him as we then went to lunch and then to the fire station to have the twins car seats installed. Their Dr. told us to get them out of their carriers. Only 7 months old, but that's another post.
In Dr. Dobson's book, Bringing up Boys, he talks about how boys at Colby's age will start to pay more attention to their fathers to learn more about themselves. I can see that in him right now and loved the fact that I was able to spend the day with him. We then took him back to the movies on Thursday to see Madagascar which he loved.
I guess I am more like my dad than I thought.

Monday, July 04, 2005

Another reason for celebration

Well, the Fourth of July will have an additional meaning for our family now. I am now an Uncle. My brother's first born son made his appearance into the world today after a 30 hour labor for his wife. They have tried for a while to have a baby but it just didn't work out until now. I know how much they wanted one and with us having twins I know didn't help. It had to be hard with them trying so hard and us having twins by accident. I remember the night I had to call them and tell them we were having twins. I think his wife pretty much started crying. It wasn't long after that when she became pregnant again and this time it all worked out for them. It was their time. My parents stayed at the hospital all night with them last night.

I know they will make great parents. This child will be really loved. He has great parents and a great family surrounding him.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

One day in Bowling Green

Who knew that going to one church conference could not only change your life forever, but bring you into a group of friends that you may have only met face to face once or twice in your life, but yet you consider them some of your best friends.

When I started volunteering at church running Power Point I never knew the impact it would have on my life alone just in the friends I would meet. Most of them I talk through web forums or through instant messaging. I see their websites and get reminded on what they look like and it reminds me of how much they love life and the Lord.

After I started volunteering, I was asked to attend a conference in Bowling Green on using media in church. I grew up a Southern Baptist and had only attended churches that had organs and pianos. No Power Point, no videos and for sure no bands. I still had doubts on that last one. When talk of bringing a drum set in at church, I just didn’t know how it would fit in.

Before the conference started, the church had a worship service. When the first beat of the drum hit, I knew right then and there it fit in. It made the service that much better. I had taken Experiencing God by Henry T. Blackaby and he talks about Spiritual Road markers in your life where God speaks to you and you know it. It marks a point in your life where God has told you something and invites you to walk with him which leads you to a decision you have to make. That night was a road marker for me. At that point, I had to make a decision to jump head first into the technical ministry and go forward.

The class also mentions that these decision can and will bring you to a crisis which you have to make decisions about. Working in media really pulled me away from God at times as I was getting to the point where I was just “doing church” and nothing else. I didn’t worship and I wasn’t involved in a small group. I just wasn’t connecting to God.

Thanks to people I have met, again maybe only once face to face, through media ministry I was able to make it through and after about a year of “healing” I have started back in ministry. Not as a lead, but as a follower.

dj

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Getting back into the grove

I don't spend enough time documenting the things in my life. Which is kind of funny as I really told someone last summer that they needed to do that since God was really at work in their life opening and closing doors.

Well, we finally moved not only our address but our membership. In the last month or so since we did, Misty is now working parttime at the church in the pre-school and nursery and I had my first full weekend in the technical services area. I was supposed to "watch" and learn the job I would be doing on my future team, but I guess other plans were in store for me. I got an email from Dave on Friday morning asking if I could work a camera for him for the weekend. Now, I have never worked a live camera ever, much less for a church service which will go to broadcast the next week.

I showed up for the Saturday evening service a little early so Dave could go over the camera with me and what he expects. There was another person who had never worked either so he went over with us both at our cameras and then went up stairs to talk to us over the intercom system switching us back and forth.

The four services went good and I learned a lot. I guess I still need to train on my regular spot, which may or may not be my regular spot. I will talk to Dave later this week and go over a couple of things and see what happens. Anyway, God is great and it's great to be climbing back in the saddle again.
dj