I'm sitting in a hotel about 20 miles from the GA state line. No, this was not on our trip schedule, but we ended up here in this very nice Fairfield Inn after our charter bus broke down. You may remember that yes in fact we did break our bus on the way to camp this past summer as well, we're pretty hard on them I guess. Last time we blew the engine, this time we blew the tranny. I'm just glad it's not our's and that we're staying here free of charge thanks to Trumpet Tours or whatever the heck their name is.

And after the horrible Microtel we stayed at in Beckley WV, we needed a place like this. I'll tell all next week when I can settle down, but for now I'll just leave you with a teaser and tell you that I, one of my adults, and all of my students were threatened to be arrested and hauled to jail by the security guard/sheriff's officer at the Microtel...and that was before we even stepped off the bus. Yeah, I'll blog about it right after I get all of my scathing letters typed up.

As soon as church is over tonight I'm outta here and probably won't be online until a date that is to be determined at a later date. Unless I get a deer, then I may endure my in-law's dial up internet to tell you about it. So until that date that is to be determined at a later date...

Happy Holidays, errrr wait, I mean Merry Christmas!!

When you're waking up tomorrow morning, I will have already been in the woods for several hours. Heading out tonight after church to Crestview, doing Christmas there, but I also plan to hunt quite a bit. My bro-in-law called this morning to tell me he got a doe and that they're moving, sounds good to me!

Speaking of, I'm on AIM with him right now but he doesn't know it's me, he thinks it's a 12 year old girl! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Here ya go Charlie, go start a revolution.

Thank you Google video, you are my friend. Ever see the BBC show Top Gear? Probably not, unless you've been to Europe or you've seen it online, like me. They do all sorts of crazy stuff with vehicles, such as play soccer, play darts, drive them thru remote control, and on to more serious stuff like pitting an EVO against a Lambo and a ralley car verses a bobsled.

For whatever reason, Firefox lost all of my bookmarks. That's a major problem since I have, well had an extensive listing that I used constantly! I'll try to find it, but if I can't, looks like I'll be rebuilding it one by one. Grrrrrr.....

I've been saving this sign for a few weeks, it'll be up for 2 weeks since the next two will be so hectic and I'll be gone so much. It's great, it deserves a 2 week spot.

About being debt free, let me tell you it is the greatest feeling in the world! We feel so secure, not invincible, but secure. Selling the truck was completely worth it as now we have a very nice and very paid for Explorer, and with the money we got from the van we bought my car and I got Audra a new set of living room furniture, all bought with cash. Micah, I proud of what you drive. Rick, go for it, you won't regret it.

It's no Gladiator, but Anne of Green Gables is really really good. There, now you know, I won't deny it to anyone.

For the first time since August of '98, I am 100% debt free, owing not a penny to any man alive. Thank you God for your faithfulness with our finances, it all belongs to You.

When you buy a fixxer upper at an extremely low price, you've generally got some extra cash to throw at it, which makes it very fun. I've got a guy who will sell me some nice looking stock VW rims for $140, including shipping. I just won an ebay auction for some big bumpers for the crazy low price of $45. In February when I've got the time(and garage) I'll get the headlights and suspension work done.

Check out the pics and notice the differences, mainly in the bumpers, suspension, and wheels. The first pic is pretty much exactly the same as what I'm driving now. When you get a car like this you've got to have vision, got to be able to see beyond what is sitting in front of you and picture what you want it to be. The wheels in the modified pic are the ones I'm getting, but mine will be polished. It's possible to make them like a mirror and I don't know if I want to go that bright, but they'll def be brighter than in that pic. But you get the general idea, and you can probably understand why I love European cars.

Thank you God for being so much smarter than I am. We were so freaked out when we found out we were going to have another baby so soon, and now I can not imagine my life without Jolenn, I just wouldn't want to imagine it. JonMichael prepared me to love Jolenn and Jolenn helps me love JonMichael.

Getting up at 4 or 5 every morning to give Jolenn a bottle is never much fun, but it doesn't matter after she smiles at you when she gets her little tummy full. Suddenly you realize that she finished eating quite a while ago and fell right back to sleep but you've been sitting there for who knows how long, just looking at her.

Maybe you've seen/heard/read about those moments when a daddy looks into his kid's eyes and realizes the kind of man he wants and needs to be everyday for the rest of his life, well it's for real, it happens often, and gets more intense every time.

Our pastor and worship leader are off on a hunting trip together for the week, leaving me as the only staff member on duty. I'm getting my first taste of what it might be like to be a pastor, and it's very different. First of all, doing the welcome during our church services yesterday was one of the most uncomfortable things ever. Preaching is a piece of cake compared to that. Then a few minutes ago I got a call from a man to say his dad's toe is about to be amputated. While I'm glad someone actually called me, it's still quite different and new. Hopefully this toe will be the only death we have this week.

Julian Beever is an English artist who's famous for his art on the pavement of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia, and Belgium. It's peculiarity? Beever gives to his drawings a 3D image, but only when you view them from the correct angle. See for yourself.....some of these are totally amazing! Keep in mind, it's only chalk! !

Double the pleasure, double the fun. We've got a son with a pretty bad ear infection and a daughter with an ear infection and she just had 3 shots this morning. Audra and I are looking for babysitters for this evening, any takers?

Big changes on the way, not the least of which is probably an new blog. Yep, I may be departing from the Drivetrain. Don't know yet, I've got so many fond memories wrapped up in this place. But the new blog would only be a page away, and would be pretty much connected, basically a temp change with a new name, so I guess I could live with that. We'll see what happens.

I'm no legal expert so someone help me out here...

I realize we're in America and I'm speaking of something taking place in Iraq, and who knows what laws they're holding to or not, but is a defendant allowed to be absent from a trial just because he thinks it's unfair? Because Saddam is doing just that. Now, this guy is supposed to be OUT of power, right? Slap him in the cuffs and drag his butt to court!

Good discussion going on in this post at justbeforebetween. It's about adding/subtracting the Christ in Christmas, and about holding a church service on Christmas Sunday.

Charlie and I had a technology class together one time in high school and at one point in the semester all we did was play tetris on the computer. Of course we competed against each other and had unbeatable high scores that kids in other classes were quite jealous of. The lead was constantly changing, we were pretty good. There was one time that I set a huge score that I was quite proud of and somehow out of nowhere Charlie sets this score that was completely untouchable, it was like the planets were aligned just right and I think El Nino played a major part of it as well. It got pretty ugly when I deleted the high scores because I couldn't ever beat it, we didn't speak for a couple of days I think.

Anyway, neither of us could hold a candle to this guy.

The weather man didn't lie, Season 2 is here in full effect this morning, frost and everything. Thankfully I saw yesterday that it was coming and was mentally prepared for it. That's the worst, when it catches you off guard, which it often does here in Florida. I can handle it when I know ahead of time. Funny, just yesterday I was running the AC, and today there's frost. Maybe it'll warm up this afternoon.

We got a most exciting letter in the mail last Friday, it said our house should be finished ahead of schedule and we should be able to close in mid-January. I think we've decided not to take down our Christmas tree until it's time to pack up and move, I hate putting that thing in the attic every year. We don't have an attic with pull-down steps, ours is just a small square cutout that the tree box will barely fit thru, and that's with me under it pushing straight up, no fun at all. Can't wait to have a garage, it will be my man-room.

I just ran over to the local office supply store to buy print cartridges. I'm squatting down in front of a huge display of carts, that is the only thing out on this whole big row of stuff. The girl behind the counter whispers to me "Pssssst, whatcha lookin' for?"

I whisper back, "Uhhh, print cartridges..."

Congrats to the St. Joe Sharks for their 1A championship! It was a great game, all of St. Joe was either at the game or at home listening on the radio. We pretty much owned them during the first half and were up 21-3 at halftime, but in the beginning of the 3rd Mt. Meade ran back 2 kickoffs for a TD, not our most stellar moment. That got them back in the game and got them fired up, the 4th quarter was back and forth. I think the lead changed something like 4 times, but we came out on top 38-31. Graceville lost their game to Evangel Christian, but I'm still so proud of them for making it that far.

We just got a letter in the mail today saying that our house should be ready to close on by mid-January, which is sooner than expected!! Pretty excited, can hardly wait.

Our football team is on the road to Miami right now(and Graceville too!) to play their championship game tomorrow. Wish I could be there so bad, but we'll all be gathered around the radio anyway.

Going to Outback tonight for our staff Christmas party, and it's all paid for courtesy of our Coke machine, so you know I'll be going all out with a steak, bloomin onion, and mushrooms! This will make the second time this week that Audra and I have gone out to eat. We got a babysitter and went out to a local seafood place and for the first time since the last time I ate at Grady's Seafood in Graceville I actually got some decent shrimp. Grady's ruined me, they have the best you've ever ever had and I just can't eat shrimp anywhere else. But I tried it at The Fish House and it was pretty good, not Grady's good, but good.

The seasonal change here on the Gulf Coast isn't quite as subtle as in most places. There isn't really a fall, no spring either. Our version of fall/spring is cold in the early mornings, yet by mid morning I've got the A/C running in my office. Gotta wear long pants and shoes in the morning, but by afternoon you can break out the shorts and flops. A very interesting place to be.