I was typing a letter to the parents in our ministry and needed to check the spelling of a word. I typed "wether" and it didn't show a squiggly line under it but I knew I needed to spell it "whether". So I checked dictionary.com just to see if it was an appropriate alternative. Yeah, better add the h.

All the books talk about how a pregnant woman will "nest" just before the baby is born. They clean every little thing, get everything organized, everything right in it's place. Or in most cases, they get their husbands to do it for them. I'm proud to say our nesting is done, as per Audra. I finished her room completely last night and everything is clean, now I've just got to keep it that way.

Me and my old skool technology. I got the idea that a Palm Pilot or some other PDA would make my life easier. So I did a bit of research, jumped on eBay, and snagged myself a Palm m505. 8mb installed, 16mb card, color screen, I'm feeling more organized already. Do I need email on a PDA? Heck no! But the older ones were selling for about the same price and I happened upon this slightly newer one. I just wanted an old cheap used one to see if I liked them. Too bad it won't be here for several days.

I'm going crazy waiting for this baby to get here. The due date is 3 weeks away, but "things" are happening that lead us to believe that it will be sooner, perhaps much sooner, perhaps any day now. Anyone with knowledge of pregnancy will know that "things" could mean any number of things so I won't go into detail. We've got another dr. appointment this afternoon and hopefully things will have progressed even more.

Wow, started early this year. I can't wait 'till Christmas so I can do my Top 10 Ugliest Lights contest, always a favorite of mine.

Everyone always told me that kids grow up too fast. That never made much sense to me until yesterday. We finished getting Jolenn's room ready for her and we took the rocking chair out of JonMichael's room and put in her's. JonMichael doesn't need to be rocked to sleep, he goes to sleep very well on his own. But I still love rocking JonMichael every night. Now he doesn't have a rocking chair in his room anymore and he has a big boy dresser. Jolenn needs to hurry up and get here so I can have another baby to rock. 2 may not be enough.

Talked to my brother last night. He was saying that things are flooded again, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was last time. The flooding is pretty much as bad as it was, but they don't have the damage and chaos. He thinks he will be heading home next weekend because things have slowed way down for him. They all thought it was much too soon to be letting residents back into the damaged areas but he said, "That mayor won't listen to anyone, he's pretty much just doing whatever he wants to."

I'm blogging from home right now. Pretty crazy since I don't have internet. How am I doing this? My brother-in-law came over for the weekend with his laptop, opened it up and proclaimed, "Hey look guys, I'm online!" It appears I'm stealing someone's WIFI, pretty exciting stuff.

This is what our house will look like from the front, except that our garage will be on the left. You can see that the neighbors are pretty close to the side, but there is a decent back yard.











Different house over there on the right, but these are the colors we picked out, except that the roof will be darker to tie in with the shutters.












Here is our lot. You may be able to make out the wooden frames that are set for the foundation. You probably can't see much, but there are 2 palm trees. We will be the only people in our neighborhood with palms in our front yard. I personally hate palm trees, but apparently I am one of the few people in coastal Florida who feel that way so I'm glad to have them since it will set us apart and help with resale. We've also got the only lot with afternoon shade. I spent lots of time out in the rain to see which lot I wanted and I think I made a good choice.




This is the floorplan, provided by the skill of my hand. It will actually be flip-flopped with the garage on the left. So far there is only 1 of these floorplans out there and it's set up like this, so I'm working from memory. Good to know I've got potential in freehand art if the ministry gig doesn't work out.

Just got back from the designer's office and it's all set. Sterling siding(light grey), white trim, dark grey shutters, dark grey shingles. Audra's happy, I'm happy. Now we'll just have to see how fast they get this thing done, but I'm not holding my breath. Maybe it'll be a nice 4 year anniversary gift for us, which is March 9.

How in the world does a storm that is barely a hurriane turn into a category 4 OVERNIGHT? That's scary, and I think that mayor of New Orleans should be served crow for lunch today.

EDIT: Scratch that, make it a category 5.

JonMichael just had his first haircut today, but that's not what this is about.

We went today to pick out all our siding and shingles and carpet and paint and counters and cabinets and fixtures. That's really not too huge of a list considering that the group who is building our house has a limited amount of choices for you to pick from, but it was still a bit overwhelming. We got it figured out, signed our name and left, thought about it, and changed our minds. At this point I think we're sticking with everything we picked out on the inside, but the outside is what we're re-thinking. Here are the choices...

Everything has white trim, keep that in mind.

We picked out light grey siding, white shutters, and light grey shingles. There was a house that we saw and Audra liked it. I think the roof may be too light and wash the whole thing out, but I'm nervous about picking too dark of a roof and making it too hot. I guess since it's new the insulation should keep this from being an issue. If we keep the grey siding, we will go with a dark grey shutter and probably darken the roof. I don't know that I'm crazy about this, but don't tell Audra.

Then there's a khaki siding that we liked. We saw a house with the khaki siding and it had white shutters that really went nice with the white trim. The roof was a light brown color so we would have the lighter roof that I'm wanting but it goes very nicely with the siding. It really looks nice. The only thing that keeps me from jumping on this was because Audra initially liked the grey siding, plus I have a feeling that several houses out our neighborhood will pick that color and we want to be a little different.

Your thoughts?

I'll try to find a copy of the floorplan to scan for you, and if I can't find that then I'll hit you with my mad artistic ability.

Anonymous collector buys rare gold coin for $253,000.

I confess, it was me. I feel better now.

We took off to Panama City Beach this weekend and oddly enough, never saw the Gulf. That's right, we either stayed in our house or laid out by the pool. I got lots of school work done, which was very nice. Audra and I spent a lot of time talking about my education, which is funny in light of the timing of this post over at a Couple of Words. I'm really looking foward to starting my masters work in the spring.

Saw this weeks bad church sign while we were over there yesterday.

I had Olive Garden last night and I've got Krispy Kreme right here on my desk this morning. It's a little solace for having to get back to life again.

The place that we stayed in was so nice. It wasn't extravagant, just clean. Our house is older and though we clean it ferociously, it never gets completely clean. Being away from the red tide helped my allergies, but being in a clean house did wonders for me as well. Last night as I crawled in bed I realized that I hadn't been back in our house for an hour and already I couldn't breathe.

Made us rather excited about our house being built, which is making very slow progress, but at least they've cleared the lot and started laying the frames for the foundation. I should have my digital camera back soon and will have to post a pic.

Cable tv is amazing, but I'm almost glad I'm back to my 2 channel world. There was just so much stuff to watch. I mostly stayed on ESPN, Speedvision, and TLC. Audra actually watched car stuff with me and has decided she thinks she likes older Corvettes over old Mustangs. Figures, I finally get her to watch something like that and she chooses the exact opposite of what I like.

I'm no scientologist, but if they're going to start handing out free nerve assist mAssages, I'm there. However, if they really did speel that right and it's a nerve assist mEssage, whatever that may be, count me out.

We're heading to the beach for the weekend, taking a much needed break. We're dropping JonMichael off with the in-laws tonight and I plan to work hard on school and Audra's going to sleep and read. We also want to spend some time in Destin to do a bit of shopping and see a movie, but there isn't much playing at The Rave that I care to see. There are a few that look interesting but I know Audra won't want to see them. Looks like a dry spell has hit the late summer box office.

My grandmother is online now and is having a good time with email. She sent me a forward this morning that was interesting. She found a site that had the lyrics and music tothe Ray Stevens song The Mississippi Squirrel Revival. It's pretty funny and I hadn't heard it in years, but on that site they also have the lyrics and music to The Fishing Hole, and it's even Andy Griffith who sings it. I'm a pretty rabid fan of The Andy Griffith Show and I knew the name of the theme song but I had never seen all the words before. You have to open this in Internet Explorer to get the music to play.

fwd: fwd: fwd: check it out!!!

Ever hear of red tide? It's a nasty algal bloom. It stinks, it kills fish(which stinks worse), and it messes with my sinuses. I haven't been able to wear my contacts in the past 3 weeks because of it. Check out this pic. It's just some pic I found online, but it looks about right. I hadn't noticed all the dead fish until yesterday, it's pretty bad.

So Matt left me a comment a little while back. He and I were at BCF together. Anyway, he mentioned that he's a big fan of The Fighting Okra as well and while I was on his site today I remembered that, although I told you that they won, I hadn't posted the score from this weekend. I know that all of you are very much interested in following the Okra this season, so here it is...

DSU 43 - UWA 14

Graceville, BCF, both interesting places. People either love it or don't. Most of you know that I fall into the former.

We were there this Saturday for the concert and it was so nice. We saw several people who were dear to us. I'll spare you by not naming all of them, but let me give you something to think about...

If there are people who have been important to your life and you've lost touch with them, get back in touch. A letter, a call, whatever. It's always worth it.

My wishlist for my truck has started, although I really am keeping it small! That was part of the deal when I bought the thing, but a few things here and there never really hurt.

First thing is window tint. I called all over Panama City and found a place that offered tint and a lifetime warranty for $90, which is much better than I anticipated. I was going to try to wait till Christmas for that, but I'm selling some Jeep and Atari stuff on eBay to get it done a.s.a.p.

Next is step rails. Audra wants me to get stainless but I've never been a huge fan of all the polished stuff. Everywhere you look that is what you see. Even though my truck does have chrome bumpers and polished rims, I prefer black powdercoat. Plus black is cheaper than stainless. Once again turning to eBay, I can get brand new ones for $100 that look just like the expensive ones except that they are not name brand. I think black would go nicely with my dark tint...and with the black grill guard and black toolbox that are #3&4 on my list.

And that's it for right now. I mean it, right now that's all I want to do to it for the time being.

Auburn won, Georgia won, New Orleans won, The Okra won, and St. Joe beat on Chipley pretty hard. The only game I got to see was a little bit of the Georgia game, and that was in the Casting Crowns tour bus.

My brother is in the 82nd Airborne and was sent back to New Orleans last Sunday. When I talked to him on Friday evening he hadn't had a shower since he left Sunday morning. They had just gotten power back where he was and were expecting running water in a day or 2. He is an officer and spends a lot of his time sending his guys where they are needed, but each day he tries to get out and about just to see what's there and keep from being couped up.

He described it as the worst thing you had ever imagined. Piles of trash 5 feet high. He said when you opened the doors of the Superdome that the smell made you gag hard. Human feces everywhere. And of course the bodies.

Oddly enough though, he said that you could see progress everyday, little by little. You would notice a traffic light working where it once didn't, maybe a street light. He said there was a Domino's Pizza that had opened and was going to try to get in line very early one day to get a good meal. He also said that they bought a huge plasma screen TV and were working hard to get cable to the place. Why? Duh, college football and baseball postseason coming up soon!

I found my old Audio Adrenaline cd the other day, man I loved that disc in high school. Played it to death, I'm surprised it still plays now. It's the only one I've ever owned, their only collection that I ever really liked. No wait, loved.

You get older, you learn, you change, you grow. It happens.

Things that mattered, now they don't. Things that didn't now do.

Looking back over time, I'm a very different person than I used to be. Sure I like lots of the same things, I look and talk the same, but core is different. The fall of '00 was pretty important to me, and it's looking like the fall of '05 will be as well.

I was asked to attend a meeting this morning at the EOC to get prepared for the storm victims that are trickling in. All the local ministers were asked to attend. *Sigh*

I don't usually enjoy hanging out with preachers. All the pomp, all the unspoken comparisons, all the hair care products(or lack thereof). I work with 2 of the greatest guys who, thankfully, don't fit into this category. If they did, but I wouldn't be working with them. I've sailed in that boat before and that boat had holes.

One of them prayed before we left. It reminded me of the praying contests that I saw from time to time back in college. He talked to God like he was the king of England, and closed it out in the name of jeeezus. Who the heck is jeeeezus anyway?

Charla for this week's church sign! She sends me text messages on a regular basis these days with signs she sees, and she's getting very good at finding the bad ones. This Saturday I had a class that I had to attend and while my phone was on silent, it still beeps when I recieve a message. It beeped once so I pulled it out to check the message, then it beeped 2 more times, except much louder since it wasn't in my pocket anymore. It was worth it, keep 'em coming.

I think for most people, Labor Day means you either really do take a break, or you work like mad on other projects. For me, it was the latter.

Do dishes, mow yard, paint baby crib, paint baby room, clean out both vehicles, do different maintainence on vehicles, vacuum house, have company for dinner, which means more dishes, then top it off with a half hour on the phone listening to a student who needed a safe person to vent to. What a day!

I'm a Casting Crowns fan. I like the music, but we also are friends with Megan(the one sitting in the chair). She married a good friend, some of you may remember Ryan Garrett from BCF? Mark Hall was Ryan's youth pastor growing up and he used to play bass with them and he occasionally plays acoustic with them now. He had a demo that he let me hear one time and some of those songs ended up on their first cd. Last summer we got to hang with the band on their tour bus in Panama, that was pretty cool. It was like sitting around with all of you guys, they are just normal people.

Just got their new cd, Lifesong, in the mail and listened all day yesterday. First time thru I wasn't too sure but after a couple of times I loved it. One song in particular is rather pointed. You really need to hear the whole thing but go to their website and listen to the clip from Stained Glass Masquerade.

"Are we happy plastic people - under shiny plastic steeples
with walls around our weakness - and smiles that hide our pain
but if the invitation's open - to every heart that has been broken
maybe then we close the curtain - on our stained glass masquerade."

my take on it

The gas thing isn't really a huge deal to me right now. I mean I care, and who doesn't long for the sub-$2 prices we had last summer, but they're gone never to return. It's only going to get worse. Deep down inside, it almost intrigues me. I'm actually very interested to see what happens across the country. I'm no tree hugger, but it's worried me for years(yes, literally) at how much gas our nation uses.

I can't really talk since I drive a gas guzzler myself, but then again this is my blog and I can talk if I want. Besides, I wouldn't have it if it weren't for the fact that since I drive in a small town a tank can still last me 3 weeks, even at 13mpg.

I think this is giving us the scare now that might prepare us for the reality that will eventually loom in the future. I like the fact that hybrid cars are on the road. I love the mental picture of some backyard scientist brewing his own bio-diesel. I still think bicycles are cool. I look forward to seeing how we adapt.