Here We Go Again

Well it started to today about 9:00 AM...snow that is. During the day about 3 inches fell. We have a break in the action right now with more to begin again during about 6:00 AM in the morning and last all day. What a tough winter!!

Wendy is already out of school on Thursday bringing their total make up to 8 days. We have not cancelled yet but I am confident that we will, bringing our total to 4. Isn't this exciting?!!

I will say this is killing our baseball practices. We have been outside on our field ONCE since our first snow (end of November) and that day was the Thursday before the major ice storm hit. Our first scrimmage is scheduled for February 13, but I doubt our field will be dried out by then. Luckily everyone is in the same boat.

We'll keep you posted.

Bauer's The Man

I am such a huge fan of Jack. I am also quite glad the "old" Jack is back, I was getting worried after the season premiere and what a better way to show the "old" Jack by beating the mess out of his brother Graem. I like seeing some of Jack personal life unravel. Meeting his dad and now his brother. Last nights episode was quite good, but I am really looking forward to next week when Jack gets to beat on his brother some more.

I did make a huge mistake last night. I record all of the episodes and then keep them until the season comes out on DVD. Well last night, we were not able to watch the show when it actually came on and once it was time to sit down and watch it Wendy decided she was too tired to stay up. Well there was no way I was waiting another day to watch the episode so I started it. Well for those of you familiar with DVR once you get to the end of the episode it asks you if you want to save it or delete it. Well every show that we watch once we are done we delete so habit told me, without even thinking, to delete the show. So I did. Now Wendy can't watch it and I don't have the 11 o'clock show on record. Oh well, Wendy can read minute by minute of the action on the shows website.

Finally here is a questions that I have.

Why didn't Karen Hayes tell President Palmer about Tom's blackmail?

FYI: I don't like Tom Lennox! He is involved somehow. I miss Mike from President Palmer's staff and President Logan's staff.

24 Update

Last nights episode left me speechless. It also proved to me why it is so important to watch previous seasons. Had you not watched last season, you wouldn't know the excitement of realizing who Jack's brother (Graem) is. With that said, if you have not watched it before tune in to one episode sooner than later and tell me what you thing.

I thought last night had a bigger impact on me than the first 4 episodes. I was just excited to make some connections with people. I was left, like every week, wanting more. The only downside to 24 is having to wait another week to find out what happens next.

Here is my first prediction...We have not seen the last of Assad, in fact, I still think he will connected to all of this bombing.

What are you thoughts on the show so far?

Here Comes More!!!!!!

Well we have been home from school all week and going a little crazy. I will have 3 days to make up because we have built in 4 snow days and we used three back in December when it snowed. Wendy has 7 total days so far because they don't build in any days. So we are hoping to finally go back to school on Monday, however that will probably not happen. A new storm in coming is supposed to hit early tomorrow morning. We are now slated to get 5-10 inches of snow. In fact, there is a 100% chance that it will snow. So much for getting back to work and not extending our summer to much. We'll keep you posted.

Update: It has rained all day, not snow, but rain!!! I am more than upset about this situation. Wendy and I were supposed to go to Oklahoma City for a Dave Ramsey - Financial Peace seminar and decided not to because of the impending snow, that by the way IS NOT HAPPENING!!!!!!!

Still At Home

Well we are still at home. Winter precipitation moved out of the area on Sunday night and we have been at home ever since. You may have heard on the news about the ice storm that we have received, we were actually pretty lucky compared to others in the state. We received about 2 inches of sleet, which has not even begun to melt yet. In fact, the temperatures have not gotten above 25 yet. Others in our state have been without power since Friday and Saturday night. We luckily did not loose power because we received mainly sleet instead of the freezing rain. I wish I had a picture of the freezing rain areas to share with you but it is unbelievable. My parents live in this area and they lost power on Saturday morning, they lost water sometime on Sunday evening and completely lost their phone line sometime on Monday. Luckily dad has a generator, but on Sunday that was broken and he spent several hours trying to get it fixed. In fact, he spent over 2 hours on Saturday trying to get it started and then had to risk it to go and buy gas, which is no easy task when you live out in the boon-docks. They have lost many limbs from trees, very possible could have roof damage from them all falling, and even had one of the biggest trees in their yard completely uproot. To say that this storm was bad is an understatement. As of yesterday, they have received all of their utilities back on and back among the living...for now. That is just one story of thousands that are going on around ours state.

As for Wendy and I we have been in the house since Friday night. I finally got out yesterday and went to the store for groceries. I then decided to take the family out to dinner close to the house. Wendy was excited because she is getting tired of being locked down. Today we plan to go to the library and then spend the rest of the time at home. There is no telling when we will go back to school. I'll keep you posted.

Jack Bauer Returns

A new day has begun and I can not begin to tell you how excited that I am that 24 is back on TV. I have been worried all weekend that because of our ice storm, I would probably lose power and miss the season premiere. Luckily I was wrong. Although 24 was good last night, I must say that the beginning of the show was nothing like last seasons. However, a lot has happened to Jack since being kidnapped by the Chinese and tortured for almost 2 years.

For those of you that do not watch 24, you missing one of the greatest shows on television. Wendy and I got into 24 about 2 years ago (Season 4). We were hooked and then frustrated when they started introducing characters that we knew nothing about (i.e. Tony Almeda). So we spent numerous hours watching the previous 3 seasons on DVD that we rented from Blockbuster. I am now a proud owner of all 5 seasons on DVD, so if you want to get into 24 and need to get caught up let me know.

Stay tuned for weekly updates on 24.

Here We Go Again

Happy New Year by the way!!! I have been absent from blogging for a while mainly because I have nothing to say. I want to get better at posting. I love being able to keep up with so many of you.

Now that that is out of the way, here in Oklahoma we are bracing for another major winter weather warning. You might remember that during the end of November and beginning of December we were snowed in for about 5 days. Now we are bracing ourselves for a major ice storm. Starting today at noon and lasting until 6 pm on Sunday, we are under an Ice Storm Warning. They are predicting one to one and a half inches of ice to fall during that time. Plus major power outages, I hope that doesn't happen at our house (at least the loss of power).

There is something about our weather hear that I can not understand. Yesterday we had a high of 61 degrees, today we are already getting sleet and freezing rain. At least it's the weekend and Monday is MLK day, so hopefully we won't miss any more school.

I'll keep you posted.

We Survived...Did You?

Well, we have survived another whirlwind of a Christmas. If you are anything like us we have several different Christmas' that we must attend. Typically they start on Christmas Eve Eve (Dec. 23) and wrap up the day after Christmas. Here is how our time broke down:

Our first Christmas was with my mom's side of the family. There are usually gifts for the kids and then my grandpa will buy us a ham or something. Christmas eve day, Wendy and the girls attended church with her parents (I was home extremely sick from something that I ate). They then went to my grandparents (dad's side of the family) for Christmas. I really hated missing that time with my grandparents. We draw names for kids and adults for this time together. I had to buy for my cousin's husband who I have never even seen before, in fact, I don't think I have even seen a picture of the guy. For all I know someone in her house got a new flashlight (that's what this person wanted), I don't even know his name. Anyway, Christmas morning is done at our house with just our family. I like being able to do that now that we live by all of our family. We then went to Wendy's parents house for lunch and Christmas. Here we also draw names for adults and kids. I went even though I didn't feel like eating much and repeating the day before. Finally, on Tuesday we went to my parents house and celebrated Christmas with them, again we draw names for the adults and just buy for all the kids (my sister and I each have 3 kids).

It was a fun time and quite enjoyable. There is nothing more fun for me than to watch my kids open their presents. I am sure those of you with kids understand and agree with that. I am a person that enjoys the holiday's because I enjoy spending time with family. I don't feel that it is a time for worrying about how much I get. I wish other's felt that way. There are some things I would like to change about all of the drawing of names that we do, but no one ever wants to listen to me because it would mean they might not get something. Aren't we adults, don't we normally buy what we want, when we want anyways? I like buying for the kids, as I have said.

Okay, enough of that. With that said, however, here is a list of the gifts that I received for Christmas.

1. NIV Study Bible for my phone

2. Cash (always good)

3. Hard gun case

4. Lowe's gift card

And the greatest gift that my adorable wife could have purchased for me...

5. Season 1 DVD of Beverly Hills, 90210

What did you get?

We've Got ICE!!!!!!!!

I don't mean sleet and snow this time, but I mean actual ice. For those of you that know us, probably remember a conversation like this at some point:

US: Would you like to come over for dinner?

YOU: Sure, can we bring something?

US: We will handle all of the food, but if you want ice in your drink you might want to stop and get some.

Well no longer will you hear us say that. We finally broke down and purchased a new refrigerator. For those of you that don't know we have not had ice since our first year of marriage and that was because we made it with the old plastic ice trays. Our first refrigerator to own was left in our house that we bought in Searcy. We have had it ever since. The refrigerator was delivered yesterday and now we actually have ice. You are probably thinking, yippee ice, well we are talking 10 years of marriage without ice. So we are pretty excited.

By the way, you won't believe were we bought it.....

Winter Wonderland

It finally started snowing yesterday around 3:00 pm. That was after it had sleeted for about 15 hours straight. The snow ended late last night and parts of Oklahoma had it's first ever blizzard warning from the National Weather Service. We ended up with about 10 inches of snow on top of the 1-2 of sleet. Roads are hazardous and travel has been discouraged. Most of the roads will not even begin to clear until tomorrow because most of northeast Oklahoma will have below freezing temperatures today. So, we are stuck in doors.

The girls were begging all day yesterday to go and play in the snow, this was during the massive sleet period. We told them that we would tomorrow. So today we bundled up and headed out for them to make snow angels. They wanted to make a snowman but the snow would not pack. It was quite deep and we have some very deep snow drifts. It's awesome. I love snow. I don't like the fact that we have used 2 of our 4 built in snow days before December even starts but I do love the weather.

Here are some pictures of the girls making snow angels and our front yard before it was all messed up.

WINTER HAS ARRIVED IN OKLAHOMA!!!!

Well we are getting hammered with winter weather and it could not have come at a worse time. It started last night with sleet and freezing rain and that is what we have been receiving all night long. Snow is supposed to start moving in this morning and snow ALL day. They are predicting accumulations of 6-12 inches. I doubt we get that much but mixed with the ice travel is almost impossible. We are all out of school today, but we probably won't be leaving for Harding today as planned. We may try to make a run for it tomorrow morning but who knows. I am bummed, but I sure do love the snow. I would like to be able to take the girls out if it ever starts snowing and stops sleeting.

Do you like the snow and cold weather?

Bedlam Update

Here are a few pictures from my trip to Bedlam. What a great game even though I was torn with the outcome. I am normally an OSU fan (I even wore orange to the game), but after living in Arkansas for 8 years I started rooting for any team from Oklahoma. So in the past I have been a fan of both. In fact, I usually root for whoever will be able to respresent the state on a bigger stage. So if OU has a chance to win the National Title (which they don't this year) I tend to root for them when they play OSU. This year the Big 12 South title was on the line for OU but I still rooted for OSU. It turned out to be a great game that came down the end. OU 27 - OSU 21 (OSU had a chance at the end to score for the win but could convert). The seats were great, especially since they were free. I was shocked by the face value of $250, I am glad they were free. We sat 19 rows up on the 20 yard line. There a few pictures above that I took with my cell phone that is why they aren't that great. Picture 1 is of the center of the field (wow right), picture 2 is of the infamous Pistol Pete mascot, and picture 3 is the endzone building which is none other than Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Bedlam...

I AM GOING TO THE BEDLAM GAME!!!!!

This Saturday at 1:30 I will be in attendance at Boone Pickens Stadium on the Oklahoma State University campus. I grew up in Oklahoma and have never attended the game but now I have tickets. For those of you that are not familiar with Bedlam, this is the game that pits the OSU Cowboys vs. OU Sooners. The battle for Oklahoma. Now for those of you in other states this may not be much because we are talking about Oklahoma, but for us this is the game.

I was lucky to get tickets, you see at OSU they set aside a certain number of tickets for Oklahoma coaches. You just have to call and see if they have any available during game week. So yesterday, being the first day to call, I began calling at 8:00 am and by 8:15 I had gotten through and received my complimentary tickets. I am excited.

I will let you know all about it on Saturday.

Time With Dad

I look forward to Thanksgiving break every year because that is time I get to spend quality time with my dad. Since I was a little kid, I enjoyed hunting. And since I was a little kid, I always hunted with my dad. This year is no different. This past Saturday, dad and I met at 5:15 am and headed to the woods. Although we didn't see anything all morning we still had time being together. In the afternoon, we both saw deer and we both missed on our shots. However, it was still a good time. Tomorrow morning we will meet again and hopefully have a little more success. Although it is great killing a big buck (I have never shot one as big as the picture), I just look forward to this time to spend with my dad.

What annual time do you look forward to spending with your parents?

Book Recommendations

For some reason, ever since I started teaching, I have started reading books during the summer. I am not a fan of reading but I have found a few authors that I really enjoy. Two summers ago, I ran across a Christian author named Ted Dekker. He writes futuristic books and mysteries. I had a friend mention to me one of his books called Black, it was part of a three part trilogy(Red and White are the other titles). I read them all and was hooked. Since that time I have read others by Dekker titled Three, Showdown and House (co-authored with Frank Peretti). If you are looking for books that are hard to put down then Dekker is the choice for you. Why do I share this with you, well it's because I just bought his most recent book titled Saint and I am looking forward to reading it even though it is not summer time yet.

Another author that you might enjoy, who also writes Christian fiction is Robert Whitlow. I ran across his books last summer just hanging out at a christian bookstore outlet in Branson. I would say that his books are similar to a John Grisham novel. He is a former lawyer who now writes lawyer books. His books include titles like Life Support, Life Everlasting, The Trial, The Sacrifice, Jimmy, The List, and Mountain Top (recently released).

Finally, for you men and fathers. I have read a few of the Every Man Series books. These are great books that deal with various topics that we, as men, don't want to talk about. They have even branched out into a few books for women. I have read Every Man's Battle (Sexual Integrity) and I plan to read these others that I own, Every Man, God's Man (Spiritual Integrity), Every Man's Marriage (Marital Intimacy), and Every Man's Challenge (Spiritual Growth). I even noticed last night that they have written books titled Preparing Your Son For Every Man's Battle and Preparing Your Daughter For Every Woman's Battle. Also for men, I have mentioned before the book More Than A Dad by Scot Anderson (highly recommended). I also bought a book last night by Ken R. Canfield, Ph.D. President of the National Center for Fathering. This book is titled The 7 Secrets of Effective Fathers - Becoming the Father Your Children Need. I will let you know if it is worth reading.

So there you go, no football update, so I needed something to post and after my visit to Mardel I got excited about reading again and I have a little time since football is over and baseball doesn't officially start playing until February.

What books would you recommend?

Week 10 - IT'S OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well week 10 came and went, now football season for the Bulldogs is over. Halellujah!!!!

If you recall about 3 weeks ago I wrapped up my post telling you to stay tuned for how, not if, but how we would lose our final three games. We had an overtime loss, a blow out, and then there was last night. What a fitting way to finish the season, 1-9.

Here's the recap. Bulldogs came out and played great defense, as always. The offense actually did a little too. Heading into the fourth quarter the Bulldogs lead 9-0. In fact with about 7:30 minutes left in the fourth we scored our first TD and lead 16-0. On our way to our second win of the season. Then something happened and the Ropers decided to start playing. The Ropers went on to score their first TD of the game and successfully executed the 2-point conversion, 16-8 Bulldogs. On our next possession we had a bad exchange witht he QB and Center and the Ropers recovered the fumble. A few plays later and a 2-point conversion added the score was tied 16-16 (Score tied within about 30 seconds). Our next possession would prove to be our last and it resulted in a punt. So the Ropers take over with about 4 minutes remaining and begin their drive to victory, however and interception returned for a TD put the Bulldogs ahead again 23-16. The Ropers took the ball again and drove down the field. They scored with about 8 seconds left 23-22. Surprisingly the Ropers line up for the field goal and it appears that overtime is in the future. Here's the good part, a poor snap, a scramble by the holder, and successful 2-point conversion pass puts the Ropers ahead and the victory, 24-22.

What a way to end the season. And in reality it shouldn't have been that close. Luckily for us the Roper's QB was suspended that day at school and so their second really good WR played QB. But, I guess it wasn't lucky enough.

I told you it would be exciting. Well, it's over, and I am on to Baseball. Don't worry once the season starts I will only update on a weekly basis not after every game. Thanks for tuning in to Bulldog football.

The Scrooge of Halloween...

Those of you that know me, know that I don't do holidays. Well, tonight, Wendy and I took the girls trick-or-treating. Yes, that is right, I tagged along. This is a huge step for me, I don't usually go with them, often times because of games or something that I am committed to. In fact, if I am at home alone I don't even turn the porch light on. I know hammer me all you want, but I am changing.

Why? Well about a year ago I read a book titled More Than A Dad by Scot Anderson. It is one of the best Christian books that I have ever read and I would highly recommend it to anyone. I would share with you what it is about but then you might not find it and read it, plus as I said, it's been a year I don't remember much. I plan to re-read the book over Thanksgiving. Let me know what you think if you actually read it.

Enjoy the pictures. Brecken was Strawberry Shortcake and Camdyn was Tinker Bell.

Harding

I love the fact that Harding sends out T-shirts to newly born babies. We received ours about week after Bentley was born. I was so excited to get it as you can tell.

This week has been Red Ribbon Week at many schools. Brecken's school had different dress up days and Thursday was favorite team day. I dug into my drawers and found my Harding jersey and let her wear it, she loved it. It thrills me to here her say that her favorite teams are the Bulldogs (I'm not sure why, we are 1-8) and the Bison.

I miss Harding. I miss the simple town life. I miss the friendships that we had, although many of them are still strong, I miss spending time with friends. I miss Harding football games. I miss faculty intramurals. I miss, even though I am old and out of shape now, the Rhodes Rowdies. Maybe one day we can return the town and school that we love.

Week 9 - I Get Friday Off

For some reason, we played on Thursday night week. In fact, we found our on Monday of this week. Good thing we looked at the Tiger's schedule because ours shows us playing tonight (Friday). I really don't think the extra day of practice would have helped us. I am sure all can believe that.

The Tigers struck early and struck often. We were down 27-3 at halftime and down 45-3 in the middle of the fourth quarter. Our first team offense scored on their second or third string defense, 45-10, and then our defense recovered a fumble in the endzone (their second or third string offense made this mistake). This was our first defensive touchdown of the season, that's right it took 9 weeks to get the accomplishment. Final socre 45-17. Have I mentioned that we are horrible?

The Tigers were far superior to the Bulldogs, in fact, most teams have been at least superior to us. But or some reason even though we 1-8 our coach hasn't accepted the fact that we just plain suck. Here is the quote from the team meeting after the game, "They [Tigers] are a good football team, but they aren't that much better than us. We just did not get mentally ready for the game. We ned to learn how to prepare mentally for games."

I leave you with this: one more week of football...yahoooooooooooooooooooooooo! Last game - Ropers, a team vying for the playoffs.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch today so that we could take picutres and get pumpkins for the girls. It's not a huge patch, but it is close to the house and we go every year. The girls have so much fun looking at all the pumpkins and picking out what they think is the perfect pumpkin. Here are some pictures from our time there. Trust me when I say that Bentley is not always sleeping.