Hurricane Katrina

The good news is... we survived. We lost a few tree limbs, a lot of leaf clean up and schools are cancelled today.

Just wanted to let you know that we were all okay.

I may post a picture or 2 this afternoon.

Life and Death

I was in Atlanta this weekend to run a meeting with my team.

It was a long day with a lot of heated discussions regarding the proper course of action for several items in our team. I don't particularly care for heated discussions because life is too short and when it all comes down to it it's only work.

Donthell Hall tends to be the most vocal of all the team members with really strong opinions regarding what our proper course of action should be.

During our conversation at lunch Don was fairly excited about taking a trip to Tennessee this weekend to take his sone back to school.

On their way to the college, there was a blow out resulting in a car crash and Don's death. His son is in the hospital with a bruised lung.

My prayers are with his family.

Football Parents

Parents really take football very seriously here in the south.

I was just reflecting on watching the jamboree last Monday. As we were watching the game, one of the mom's was getting frustrated over the fact that her son wasn't getting enough play time. She started screaming at the top of her lungs:

"Put #72 in so he can hit somebody... Put #72 in so he can hit somebody"

When her son didn't get in, she turned on our own team...

What did she say next?

As the quarter-back was rolling right out of the pocket she yelled:

"Stay in the pocket... who do you think you are? Michael d*** Vick????"

It's going to be a looooooooong season.

Family fun time...

One of the local schools had a Jamboree on Monday. A Jamboree is basically where multiple schools are invited for the first inter-school scrimmage of the year.

This year, Christopher's team played Briarwood Christian Academy and Clay Chalkville.

In the middle of the picture, under the umbrella are Joshua, Christopher and Aretha.

Christopher got to play team captain the first game, which was cool.
The Riverchase Panthers (Christopher's team) won their first game against Briarwood and lost against Clay Chalkville.

The highlight of the evening was a touchdown block that Christopher made on a reverse allowing our running back to score a touchdown. He was pretty excited about it.


Christopher, is #60 and can be seen here running off the field after winning the coin toss.

Bad transportation week.

This was a baaaaad week for transportation in my household. It started on Saturday when I went on my morning bike ride with Caleb.

It was a good ride, we did maybe 3 miles, then a half mile away from the house, my rear derailer broke, tossed up into the spokes and siezed my rear tire.

Delightful.

THEN... on the way home today, while driving 70 miles an hour down the highway, the brakes and power steering on the van decided to stop working.

Delightful.

Baaaad week for transportation.

I'm okay. I was able to pump the brakes and stop. But the van is currently sitting on the side of the highway... exit 242... highway 65... south.

Delightful.

What about Bob???

The big question is... what's going on in my life? My life is actually fairly simple. I wake up in the morning, get ready and go to work. After work, I come home, help the kiddies with their homework, cook dinner and then try to relax... Life is really kind of good and simple. The way that I like it.

In all honesty, I've been working in Informatoin Technology since I was 17 years old. 2 years from now marks my 20th anniversary working in this field... and I think I'm ready for a change.

Lately, I've been trying to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. I'm trying to decide if I want to go back to school, if so, what I want to do. The only thing that I know for sure is that I'm ready for a career change.

When I first entered the "computer world" - it was a well formed world. You could know it all and truly be an expert. Now, there are a lot of sub par solutions and people don't treat it like the art form that it is... I'll hop off my soap box.

So, the question is - "what am I thinking about doing in my second career?"

I was thinking about becoming a musician - but that would involve travell... and something called skill. I'm not "bad" - but I'm not good enough for that.

I do run a recording studio on the side - but I sow my recording talents into small ministries... I walk them through the copyright process, help them make a press kit, help them record and package high quality CDs so they can support their ministry.

There's a philosophy that says "enjoy what you do and the money will follow" - I'm in the process of trying to figure out what this is for me.

The good news is... I have time.

Could it possibly be???

As many of you know, Aretha, my wife was a stay at home Mom until the Joshua, Caleb and Christopher went to school. When the twins started kindergarden, she went back to college to study accounting.

After many years of hard work, she graduated last May and entered the work world.

Over the past year, she's been temping with AccountTemps and another company - this is primarily because all the companies are looking for people with 2 or 3 years worth of experience.

Over the last 4 months she's been working with a company downtown that actually has liked her a lot. It's a small company and a great opportunity to really learn the ins-and-outs of accounting.

With this temp agency that's she's working with now, you have to work at least 600 hours before the company can hire you... if they want to. Aretha hit the 600 hour mark a couple of weeks ago.

The problem is, the company hadn't made her an offer yet.

We had a lot of discussions between the 2 of us regarding what a good "stay" offer is and what a "walking out the door" offer was and when/whether she should go to the management there and ask what the status is.

Well, yesterday, Aretha took that step. She went into the head guys office and asked him if they were going to extend her an offer to make her permanent.

His response was... "I thought you already were!"

The ball is rolling... we'll see what happens.

Green and Gold Game

In the south, the priorities are God, Football and Family. On Saturday we had the first of many looooooooooong football related outings.

Pelham Highschool has a new head football coach. He has decided that he wants everyone that plays football in the Pelham/Helena area to run his offence. Starting with the Pee-Wees.

Saturday was the first annual Green and Gold games. It started at 10am with the 65 pound boys playing and ended up around 9pm that night with the high school playing.

Christopher plays on the 8th grade team. The coaches asked that the 9th graders show up in time to watch their 7th grade counterparts play.

The 7th grade game was called on account of lightning. We actually waited for 2 hours for the weather to pass. Then the 8th grade boys had the opportunity to play. First scrimmage... under the lights... in the rain.

Delightful.

Christopher played defensive end. He was in on 2 tackles... he's getting better.

Over already???

This image is from Christophers 13th Birthday Party.

It amazed me how much parental involvement is expected today. When I was younger, there were far fewer activities to participate in, less ALL DAY television programming targetted at kids, fewer video games... and I think we were smarter... (just kidding).

Anyway, we had a middle school picnic yesterday at Oak Mountain State Park. This was a time for the 6th, 7th and 8th graders to get together to meet eachother and welcome in the the 6th graders. An opportunity for the parents to connect with eachother and meet the staff who is going to be working with the kiddies.

It was a regular family event. We even played family games. Joshua got to have his head covered in shaving cream and have cheetoes tossed it him, I won the egg toss... I had a good team mate. We would have kept going, except I fumbled the egg on a 30 yard toss and dropped it at my feet.

Joshua and Caleb ran into the lake at Oak Mountain and got to ride home in their underwear... ah... memories.

Team 45

This is Joshua's picture from the first day of school lst year.

Well, It's Sunday.

If you want to know more about the church that I attend, look over in the links section. You'll see a link for Mountain Top Community Church. You'll always know what's going on in our local church by looking there.

Today is "Promotion Sunday." This is the Sunday where the children progress to their next class.

Christopher is still going to be with the middle schoolers, since he's in 8th grade. The BIG CHANGE is going to be Joshua and Caleb. Joshua and Caleb are moving to Team 45.

Team 45 is the name if the ministry that deals with 4th and 5th graders. It's actually a fairly big step. They have their own T-shirts and it's a big change from where they were before.

A good friend of mine Richard Scott is one of the leaders there, so he'll keep a good eye on them for me...

First game of the season...

This is Joshua's picture from the first day of school this year.

Christopher had his first game of the school year today. It was the Green and Gold inner-squad scrimmage. In the south, Football is #2 on the list. #1 is God and #3 is Family.

This was a DAY of football, starting with the 65 pound division starting in the morning and ending with Varsity playing under the lights in the evening.

Christopher plays on the 8th grade team. In a show of solidarity, the coaching staff asked that the 8th graders show up to watch the 7th graders game.

The 7th graders probably got to play for 6 minutes before the game was called on account of lightning.

Did that end the day? Of course not... the teams retreated to the field house to waite it out. It thundered, it lightninged, it rained... and the show went on. Christopher's team had the opportunity to play - which was cool, although it was late. I think they were scheduled to play around 5pm, but they didn't hit the field until almost 7pm.

If this is any indicator, it's going to be a looooooooong year.

The big question is... how did Christopher do?

The team played a 20 minute game. He was in for maybe 4 or 5 plays which is better than last year. He played defensive end, and was in on 2 tackles. 1 was a solo tackle that everyone else joined in on after he made the stop.

Last year was his first year playing. This year, he's making a lot of improvements. He's getting off the ball faster too.

I'm not one of those over indulgant parents that will scream and yell and all that. This is something that he enjoys doing and something that he must do for himself.

Pictures to follow soon.

Let the games begin!!!

This image is of Caleb on the first day of school this year.

Christopher has his first football game of the year today. It's the Green and Gold inner squad scrimmage. It should be interesting. I'm going to be out there with my camera. Hopefully I'll be able to snag a picture or 2.

In Alabama they love some football. The games started early this morning with the 1st - 6th graders playing. Christopher has to be there to watch the 7th graders play, and then they play the hour after that.

We're not going to stay to see the high schoolers play tho...

Christopher has a friend staying over tonight. Brandon and Christopher were friends in elementary school then they moved to Helena. When we bought our house, we moved to less than half a mile away.

Let the games begin

For starters, this picture is of Caleb. It was from the first day of school last year.

One of the things that happens with each school year is the beginning of activities. Well, that's not totally true. Christopher has had football practice year round, because in Alabama they love themselves some football.

Caleb and Christopher are both playing football this year. Christopher is playing for his junior high 8th grade team and Caleb is playing flag football through the Upward program at First Baptist Church in Pelham.

Joshua has decided that he's going to sit out this season - he'll probably be back for basketball season.

I'll have to post pictures so you can see what these guys look like once they're all geared up. Should be fun.

Anyway, it's Friday, the end of the first week of school. Everyone is easing into their schedules again. I'll try to keep things up to date, but things move kind of fast paced here.

School started yesterday

It was amazing... people actually woke up on time.
Aretha made waffles for breakfast.
The busses ran on time.
The whole day ran like clockwork.
I went into the office early, Aretha stayed to make sure everyone got off to school well. I was able to get home in time to see the twins get off the bus.

Life... is good.

I decided to redo the pictures since they overlapped, so I pulled them out and decided to start with Christopher's pictures.

First day of school...

Summer went by very quickly. It seams like just yesterday that the boys got out of school.

Anyway, kids grow up so fast. It seams just like yesterday Christopher was in 4th grade, and now he's an 8th grader and almost as tall as Aretha.

The twins are going to be in 4th grade this year. Their 10th birthday is next month. AMAZING.

Anyway, tomorrow is the first day of school. I'm posting pictures of them from last years first day of school.