Road to Walmart

This road (which is mainly gravel) is the quickest way to the nearest walmart.



I found a new way to work today. On the route is a massive horse farm. I will post pics later tomorrow .

Filing our dinner

Intersting décor.
This was in the middle of the eating area at the diner that we had dinner at.

Dog raises tiger cubs

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25945650/



I just thought this was cool. Tigers rock. Tigers and dogs rock even more.

Sunset

One of the reasons we came here

Storm coming

Rain,rain go away. I am finding that the storms in Oklahoma are swift but brutal. I have not seen a simple drizzle since I got here

Katie cleaning the pool

Neat and tidy

Ice is Nice

This is my all time favorite gum. No other really compares. I have gotten used to always having it around. But what would happen if they quit making it (sniff. I miss Surge soda. google it). What is your favorite, can't live without treat? What would you do if your favorite consumable item were no longer available? Would you have to replace it? Or would you just make do without it? How would you cope?

Irritated!

OK.. I am in school. I am in the technology field. I know that everyone has had issues with technology before....but to have severe issue with a university website that has an overwhelming online presence for 3 weeks....www.CTUonline.edu ..I give you big thumbs down.

HANDS OFF!!

wah! So I guess that they are saying "DO NOT STEAL...or EVEN TOUCH...OR WE WILL BITE YOUR HAND!"

I need to get one of these for my PEZ dispenser.

A bit muggy

So it is supposed to be 98 degrees and thunderstorms today. What kind of weather will that be? Good thing I have no hair. I will have to go swimming tonight.

Good luck to all of those who are going to Detroit!

Have fun and make a positive difference!

Catching Up

Had the pleasure of catching up with a few friends today. Led me to thinking about some things. This will be a pretty short blog but I just want to say a few things.

1. Don't ever be ashamed of Jesus.
2. Keep Jesus in your heart.
3. Follow your heart (if He is there, can it be wrong?)
4. Be good to others (no if's or buts)
5. Know that where you are right now, and where you are going is part of His plan.

Note on #5: We as humans, can feel lost and misdirected pretty easily. Put us in a fog and we are essentially useless. God knows the wheres and the hows. Put your faith in Him and He will not lead you astray.

Quick nerdy video of our backyard

Here is a quick look at our back yard. It is a bit messy, but the lawn is cut and I didn't bury the tractor this weekend. yay me. Anyways, I will post again later. Enjoy!

Oops

Have you ever been in a situation where you are sure that you know what a person is thinking? LOL Well...what if you are wrong? What would you do?

You Can't Always Get What You Want....

No, you can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime you find
You get what you need

I was going to start this blog with a picture of a wasp and a fiddleback because that is what kicked this whole thought off, but lacking the courage to dig through the garbage, and not finding what I wanted on the Net...I settle for the Stones.
As we cleansed the garage the other day, I found a Fiddleback and a wasp tangled together...dead. Fiddlebacks are notorious for preying on dead or dying insects.

My thought about this was that the spider came upon a dying wasp and thought it had scored an easy meal...Not so. The wasp's stinger had impaled the spider, killing it as it itself died.

I guess that it made me think about stuff. How far we as human beings strive for things that we "need" or "want". We push ourselves to excel. Get the next promotion, house, car . We all do it in some form or other and to some degree or other. It happens. Sometimes it is no big deal. Sometimes...well, I know one IT guy that almost broke a marriage because of it 5 or 6 years ago. In essence we work ourselves to the bone in order to amass stuff.....and we aren't getting any more time to use it.

What if we took this intensity, this passion for getting ahead and focused our sights for Jesus? What great things could we all accomplish if as a single body we pushed forward for Christ? Forget about "my church" or "their church" for a second. Can you picture it? How amazing it would be.

When we tackle the world, we need to be sure that we have God to guide us otherwise we end up running for the wrong end zone.
-Anonymous

My Very Own HardHat

Haha.
This is really a test to see if I can post to both my blogs at the same time.
But anyways, this is my OSHA safe, über cool hard hat & safety glasses. Notice the pink ear plugs in the goggles? Nice touch I think. Anyways.
I will post an interesting blog later.
By the way:
I am putting together a 130 TB (terrabyte) backup system...drool

Things that taste good are bad for us.

As if th little morsel above could be anything but good for me!
ok. I fibbed. I wasn't going to blog till after homework tonight but something happened that has changed me. People that know me, know that I abhor sweet things for breakfast. Give me eggs and bacon any day of the week, but I would rather go hungry than put a lump of sugar in my body to start the day. Until I met the delicious morsel that you see above. A lightly deep friedl cinnamon roll. What? Did you hear that?
I think that I just heard my waistline expand.
Man, I am starting to like this place!
I am going to have to bring some of these back to chicago on my next visit.

This Garage is CLEAN!

It took about three and a half hours, but the garage is now tidy, which is not CLEAN but I for one feel much better about it not being a harbor for nasty arachnids. (I think that some of my unease comes from flashbacks of arachnophobia the movie)
Anyways, to find out a bit more about the Brown Reluse Spider CLICK HERE

I was going to post a picture of my tractor ditch from Saturday, but I lost motivation to do anything except jump in the pool after sweating in the garage for those few hours.

I will post more tomorrow after I finish Java..

test vid from my phone

hopefully this works

A bit warm

Note the small 97 in the lower right corner. That is the temp outside right now. In the shade. Ugh. I am glad that I am inside. Not happy that I am inside doing homework, but beggars can't be choosers

my first tractor ride

this is my buddy creepy. He cleans the bottom of our pool. I put him in while I hopped on the tractor and broke ol bessie in (bessie being the tractor I guess) Anyways it took me about 3 hours to mow the lawn. I have a sneaky suspicion that it is more than the realtors told us. Anyways, I found the natural spring that the neighbor told me about in the back of our property. The ground there is very soft. So soft in fact that it can't hold the weight of a tractor. Ole bessie doesn't much like being stuck. thought for a moment that I would have to put her down. Woulda been a shame. but thanks to a piece of carpet and some guidance and good driving from KT. We got her out. I will post pictures of the hole in a while. right now I am going go join creepy in the pool

About as peaceful as you get

a picture of our backyard. it is ridiculous how peaceful it is. When I first moved out here, I was not quite sure about the decision, a little like buyers remorse. Moments like this however, affirm that it was the right way to go. I think that one of the hardest things for me to do is completely quiet my mind and spend time with God. Odd really. I am in a nice peaceful place yet my brain is always on overdrive. I imagine that it will take time to adjust to the pace of life here. I will write more later today.

new resposbility

1/8 of my new set up. I won't show it all but these are a couple of the 27 total in all.

test

test
my new digs at work

What If The Church Paid You?

Interesting thought. Katie's cousin in DC posted about this. Check it out: http://www.annejuliet.com/post/42410222/pay-it-forward-last-week-at-church-our-pastor

What would you do with the money if every week, the church gave you the equivalent of your tithes? How would you use it? We give our tithes joyfully,but would we joyfully put them to good use...helping to fur her Jesus' Word?
Hope AnniePat doesn't mind the link(but since I can't comment about it on her blog..I get to post it here ;-))
I found the thought interesting

aww snap!

hehe
mikey found out how to blog fRom his phone. to quote a fRiend from dc "the world will never be the same!"'

Bueno Taco Tractor

I was going to post some videos from our 4th of July weekend, but I need to convert them first. Anyways, things are good. There is a lot of adjustment these days, but it will work out and after everything is said and done, I will post at length about all the events.
In the meantime, here is a new found joy:
Taco Bueno. It is kinda like Taco Bell on steroids.



And...it was bound to happen. We live in a ranch (no, not ON a ranch) and we have a little bit of a yard. So today, today I bought a tractor (With Katie's help).



I know that people will get a kick out of this, but I did look at hats too. Not really a cowboy hat type of guy but I thought that a hat like this may be semi cool(Please note that no photchop of ANY KIND was used in the making of this photo, NONE...Can you tell I have yet to reinstall CS?):


Anyways. That is it for now. As soon as I get a full handle on everything I will be updating much more regularly. For you Myspace fans, I will be more active their as well. BUT as everyone that is hip and cool knows, the best place to catch anybody who is anybody is on www.twitter.com

UGh

How do you make an IT guy go outta his mind? Take away all connectivity for a week.
We just got internet today. I will update more this weekend. I have a bunch of videos and pics to post.
Man have I missed the net.
Hello to everyone in chicago!

Hole Away from Home

So last night was my last night at the glorious Holiday Inn Express. :-(
Instead of coming back here tonight after work, I will venture out to the new homestead. Meeting back at the "Ranch" as it were. Ranch as in type of house, not as in cattle.
I am currently in the process of moving all of my stuff out which is a pain because I have a lot and the elevator has chosen not to cooperate. It has decided that since I am on the third floor, I need more excercise more and carry my stuff down the stairs. Or it least that is what I gathered from the "Out of Order sign" on it's big selfish doors.
Anyways, I wanted to post and say that when you next hear from me, it will be official...I will be an Okie.
I will try to find a Panera or some like place to post from in the next day or two as we have not decided on an internet provider yet.
Cheers! I gotta go lug a bike rack downstairs.

A Pretty UN-lame Guy

Happy Birthday Erik Scottberg!
It's kinda official: You are getting OLD! You are thirty years old! That spells O-L-D! I would make the font bigger for easier reading if I could. :-P.
I just wanted to take a moment and express to all of my 50 readers how great of a guy you are.
I could go on and get mushy and let everybody know how much Erik has taught me about faith and friendship and the general goodness of people...but I don't want to embarrass him too badly. The singing delivery person going to Stone Church should suffice.
Anyways, Pastor Erik...Thank you! I appreciate you as a pastor and a mentor. I value your friendship, and I hope that you have a truly tremendous day!

Happy birthday with many happy returns!