Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Happy Thanksgiving Day to everyone!  On this day I urge you to spend time with family, thank God for the blessings you have in your life and please pray for those who perhaps are not as fortunate as you may be.  Remember those in prison, who are homeless, and who are orphans or widowed.  Pray for those you know.

But most of all, have a blessed day!
Eric

This Weekend I Was in Prison

I have posted a new blog entry on my Worldview Blog detailing my time this weekend attending the Prison Ministry event.  Take a few moments to read it.
Eric

My Daughter The Poet

I happen to glance over at our coffee table today and saw three pieces of paper that my oldest daughter, Chloe had used to make into a medium for her poetry. I wanted to share with you the genius who is my daughter.

Depression

Depression is azure like seeing waves of tears flow down faces.
Also like watching rain fall onto my face.
It makes me feel down like I'll never feel joy again.

Love

Love is a crimson like the roses in a bride's bouquet and
also like one's caring for another.
it makes me feel happy.

Joy

Joy is auburn like dancing in a field of tulips.
Also like jumping in a pile of ginger leaves.
It makes me want to laugh and smile.

All by Chloe, my oldest (10 y.o.) daughter.

A Chance To Win A Kindle!

Noobie is giving a Kindle worth $259 away!  You can also have a chance to win one too!

All you need to do to enter is to click the link below or copy and paste it into your favorite Internet browser:
http://www.noobie.com/kindle-giveaway?ref=1158460475
 
Be sure to read the email you get from Noobie after you register. You'll get your own unique link that you can use to earn even more entries in the drawing!

P.F. Chang's 50 Dollar Gift Card Giveaway!

He everyone, I am giving away a 50 dollar gift card to P.F. Chang's on my giveaway blog. Click the title of this post to take you there!

Catching Up

It's been a while since my last post.

I've turned 41 years old though I don't feel it at all.

I am negotiation to try for another sponsor for a contest.  I can't tell who at this moment, but it is definately worth the wait.  Their food is excellent.

And I am now the Technical Manager at my work.  I am actually a manager now.

Which brings me to the fact that I am sitting in a Starbucks, sipping coffee, waiting on my training which starts at 9 AM.  Why am I here so early?  Traffic, plain and simple.  If you drive in the Dallas area, you'll understand why I am here so early!  But it is worth it.

Now if only they would play Frank Sinatra instead of Barbra Streisand. 

Have a blessed day!
Eric

My Worldview

I am a follower of Jesus Christ. And as such I have a distinct worldview that is different from a lot of people. However, I also recognize that this particular blog is not the place for that type of blogging so I have a new blog that is accessible from the links above.

If you are curious, click on "Worldview" above and see how I think about the world and Christ.

Thanks,
Eric

My Youngest Turns Seven Today

Happy Birthday to my youngest daughter Morgan who turns seven today. It is very hard to believe that it has been seven years ago today that she came into this world, bringing joy and happiness to us. She has always been more of a tomboy, but today she is a Girl's girl. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Here she is at Build A Bear with her two newest friends.

And here she is getting a facial and her nails done.

Growing up. Getting older. But still and always, daddy's little girl.
Happy Birthday Princess.

Ultimate Karaoke Winner!

After pulling the number from Random.org, the winner was comment number 11 and that comment belonged to Leslie!

I have sent Leslie an email notifying her of her winning this prize.  Thank you to all who entered this contest!

Eric

It really is all about Love

I saw this today on Tangle.com and wanted to share it with everyone. This is Chris Tomlin's new song "Love" featuring the Watoto Children's Choir.

Enjoy.
Eric

Visiting Kids in Prison

Matthew 25: 35-36 says this:

For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.

This past weekend was the Bill Glass Weekday of Champions - Youth for the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. A day in which several hundred like minded people get together to visit and share the gospel of Jesus to those who are in prison. Or in this case, juvenile detention centers. It broke my heart going to this one, and my heart continues to break just thinking about it.

I went to a center in Dallas that had 24 residents in it. (They don't call juveniles offenders or inmates here.) Kids. Some of these kids were as young as 14, some as old as 17 and the breakdown of demographics was staggering:

• Out of the 24, there was one white, 4 hispanic and the 19 black residents.
• At least 5 had one or both parents in prison.
• At least 3 had children of their own.
• There were 16 girls and 8 boys.
  

Since I have two girls of my own, I was blessed enough to be in a small group with the team leader and another older female team member, along with 4 of the female residents. As we all shared and talked, I kept thinking that my oldest is 10, and the youngest in our group was only 14. All of them talked about high school and who knew whom, and when the discussion turned to Christ and going to Heaven or Hell, they didn't know. The team lead allowed me to lead the group discussion and to make a long story short, all four girls professed to have surrendered to Christ a long time ago and wanted to rededicate their lives to Him. It was a humbling moment.

All in all it was a good day,and I think that perhaps this type of evangelism may be my calling. I am still praying about it. I will be going into training to lead Bible studies at the centers after the November weekend of champions I'll be a part of.

If you have kids, hug them today and tell them how much you love them. The kids I met this past Saturday, didn't get that kind of affection and it showed.

Please join me in praying for the kids here in the Dallas area centers, that they will grow in Christ and study and pray.

Have a blessed day.
Eric

TheKaraokeChannel.com: A Review and Giveaway!

I was asked to write a review of thekaraokechannel.com and have had time now to review the website, the karaoke kit that you can purchase for 39.95 as well as a review of the entire online karaoke interaction with my family and friends. Also, stay tuned as I will reveal below how to win one of the Karaoke kits and a months service!

I want to start off by reviewing the website itself.

The website’s main page is by itself fairly intuitive, and you will know what to launch right away. There are three main areas of interest as of this writing: Online Karaoke Community, Download Store, and Karaoke on TV. To start singing right away, you click on the Online Karaoke “Launch It Now” button.

The Online Karaoke Community page may seem somewhat intimidating to the first time user, as there are many options to choose from, but after only seven seconds of looking the page over, I could pick up on what to do. The easiest thing to do is to look at the free songs section that appears in the middle of the page and pick a song by simply clicking on it. This loads the chosen song in the page’s media player and you may now sing the song you have just chosen. It really was that easy!

The media player itself is situated at the top right corner of the page with a button labeled "Full Screen". Click that button and the media player does become a full screen player. For your singing pleasure, you have options to have the vocals to the song sung so you can sing along as well as to change the key the song is in, so that if the song is in too high a key for you, you will be able to sing the song in a key that is more natural for you. There are a couple of other options, for the microphone, webcam and lyrics as well.

Moving on to the songs, the site claims to have, at this time of writing, 5,841 songs available to choose from. I did not go through every single one of them, but there is a good selection available in almost all types of musical genres, from Country to Pop to Christian to Rap. There was a kids section of music, but I was slightly disappointed at the choices there. My daughters, ages six and ten loved this website and hardware to go along with it, but did not like the choices in the children's music category saying that the songs were not what they listened to mostly. They are hoping that more up to date songs will be added soon.

To be honest, the site does have songs by the Jonas Brothers, but we did not find anything by Hannah Montana, or other popular pre-teen and teen stars that my daughters normally listen to. As for adults, there are songs galore. I had no problem finding songs to sing along to, nor did my wife. I had several people over to try this out at a party, as a further test of the capabilities of this site and equipment and it passed with flying colors as everyone found music and had fun singing.

The only complaint that I have about this site is the lack of parental controls. My daughters are both web savvy even at their age and not only can navigate the web, but have favorite, kid-friendly sites they like going to. They had no problem navigating this site, and I would have no problem with them being alone on this site, with one exception: there is no way to turn off certain genres of music, or have certain songs not play or show up in the lists available to the user. So the best a parent could do for this situation is to have fun with your children and be on this site with them. There may not be parental controls, but you can turn that into a positive by spending the time with your children singing along together. That way, the parent can watch what is being sung or seen.

As far as pricing goes for this service, there are four alternatives:

1. A free trial offer which will net you 250 songs to use with the remainder of the songs being 30 second samples. This offer does not have a time limit on it and is not ad free.
2. The Rising Star which is 9.95 a month with a minimum purchase of two months nets you the availability of all of the songs to sing to.
   
3. The Shining Star, which is a daily plan is 14.95 per day, and is geared mostly to those hosting a party and only want the service for the party.
4. The Superstar, which is a yearly purchased plan for 99.95 is the best bargain of the bunch.
   

The last 3 plans are all ad free when purchased. There is an optional Karaoke Kit available for purchase under the first 3 plans for 39.95 and the kit does come free with the yearly plan.

The next thing I would like to review is the optional Karaoke Kit that is available for purchase or comes free with the yearly purchased membership.

The kit comes comes with a USB vocal mixer and two microphones as seen in the pictures below.

Assembly was rather simple, as you plug the mixer into a USB port on your computer, unplug your speakers from your computer and plug the audio jack you just unplugged into the black female plug that is attached to the mixer, you then attach the audio plug from the mixer into your computers output audio jack (The one you would connect your headphones into.), then plug the microphones into the mixer, turn up the volume and select the song you wish to sing. This was so simple, my ten year old daughter had it figured out when I unplugged everthing and left the room.

The microphones did have a professional feel to them and did not break or become damaged when dropped onto the floor during the karaoke party we hosted. The mixer's controls were easy to use and labeled nicely. The sound quality from the entire setup had a very good professional feel to it. During the party we hosted, there was not a complaint about the volume, nor quality and several of my friends expressed interest in purchasing this for themselves.

Overall, thekaraokechannel.com has something very nice going for it and I do recommend it to my friends and family members, as well as to those of you who read this review. Except for the lack of parental controls, I believe this to be a family fun and family friendly website and I give it 4 out of 5 mice.

Now for even more exciting news, the staff at thekaraokechannel.com have graciously given me an extra Karaoke Kit to give away, along with a free month's subscription to their online karaoke service!

This is a fantastic opportunity to have fun with your kids, family members and friends. All you will need to do to enter is to visit Karaoke Channel Online browse through their song list (in the download store) and leave a comment on this post letting me know what song is your favorite.  Please make sure I have away to contact you!!

To gain extra entries:

1. Follow this blog or any of my other blogs, just leave a comment with the blog you are following.

(1 entry for each blog you follow)

2. follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway, leave a comment with your twitter name

3. Blog about this giveaway, just leave a comment with a link to your post.

A winner will be chosen at random and the winner will be notified by email, so make sure all comments have an email! This giveaway will end on July 26th at Midnight and a winner will be drawn the 27th. The winner will have 48 hours to notify me of acceptance. If the 48 hours elapse without a reply a new winner will be chosen. Also, please note that this is open to United States residents only.

Good luck!

Working Long Hours

I wanted to apologize to those who might be waiting on things from me, like columns and such. I have been working over 80 hours a week the last two weeks and I will try to get things back on track here in the next few days as one project winds down.

I am still waiting on whether or not I will be reviewing my first requested site or not. Stay tuned.

(A very tired) Eric

Review Coming Up

I have been asked by Dad-Blogs on behalf of a PR firm in New York to review a website and I am really excited about this opportunity! I won't name the site until I review it but I will say that I played on the site last night and had a blast!

I am waiting on a kit from the firm so I can experience the full effect of this site. Until then I will just have to practice.

Stay tuned...

A Review of Momscape.com

As you know, I am writing about family friendly websites and I firmly believe that everyone in the family should have a fun and safe place to go, from the kids to mom to dad. In my first column, I reviewed a very good site for the kids, Yahoo! Kids. For this column I would like to bring the moms aboard and review a very good site for moms I have discovered: momscape.com.

I firmly believe that everyone, except Moms themselves, takes the role of motherhood for granted. When you are sick or injured, usually the first one at your side is your mom. Who plays the role of the chauffeur, maid, cook, nanny, and in some households, secretary and accountant? You guessed it, the mom.

So every now and then Mom needs a break, whether it is a five to ten minute break or longer, but she needs a break. I believe that for those times when she is on break and online she can find solace at momscape.com.

So what exactly is momscape.com? According to the website itself, it is

“an award winning online magazine (winner of the Parenting Journals’ Editor’s Choice award.) delivering uplifting personal essays from real parents - plus practical guidance on parenting, family fun, romance, travel, health & fitness, weight loss, and more. Hundreds of money-saving online coupons and family travel discounts, too.”

I began by simply looking the site over and at first glance, it is very easy to navigate, with links to everything you would like in a website devoted to moms. I looked at the romance link first, just to see what that would be all about and after reading a couple of the articles, I think some of us dads should too! Articles such as “50 Ways to Say I Love You” and “Falling BACK in Love with Your Spouse” were very informative, especially to this dad.

Next I decided to take a look at the online coupons section. After all who does not want to save money? This was a nice find as there were several different categories, with several name brand retail chains, such as Victoria’s Secret and Justice, offering coupons for anyone wishing to click and print. After that it was over to the parenting section. With 11 different categories in parenting, this is a treasure trove of information. As I read some of the articles, I learned a couple of tidbits of information I had not known previously. You will be amazed at the various writers’ knowledge of the subjects in this section.

As my time was limited this day, taking my daughter out fishing, I will let the moms, and dads who venture here look for themselves at the variety of information on this site. You will not be disappointed. I will simply say that as for family safe and friendly, this is really not a kid’s site, but a parent’s site, so in saying that, I would not let my kids on this site. It is not bad, but the subject matter can be a little over the heads of younger viewers. As for parents, especially Moms, I say check it out!

From My Column on Dad-Blogs, Yahoo! Kids Review

I have two girls, ages ten and six, and both of them are somewhat online savvy for a child. Now as a parent I tend to be overly protective when it comes to what they look at online, and what sites they can visit. It is my hope that by writing this column, you will discover with me, websites that are family friendly, for both your kids and yourself. For this first column, I would like to write about a site I looked at today: Yahoo Kids.

According to Yahoo's FAQ, the site is geared towards kids ages six through twelve, and attempts to deliver the best and safest content on the web. You may remember the site originally as "Yahooligans!".

At first glance this site is very appealing, with lots of vibrant colors, clearly defined areas and for this parent, it seems safe. I decided to try and see how safe it is.

The first thing I did was to try out the search feature of the site, and began typing in some words, one at a time that I would not use around kids, much less adults. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of the words brought back no results, not even a hint of what the words represented. So far, I was impressed with that feature alone. Also, for the safety of the kids, all of the content is screened by "real live human beings", again according to the site FAQ.

The next thing I looked at was the Parents link. When the link is clicked, a warning popup appears saying that you are entering the parent's area and that you should only do so with your parent. That I do like, but I am a little disappointed that a kid would be able to go on to the parent's section, simply by clicking on the Continue to Parent's link on the popup. The parent's area is mainly used for things like movie reviews and postings by parents, for parents, such as you would find in any forum. There were some subjects that kids might find difficult to grasp, depending on the age, and there was one questionable word, but other than that, I wouldn't be too upset if my ten year old arrived at this section.

As I have one child entering fifth grade, and the other moving up to first, I looked at the study section next. This is a section that impressed me as well. According to Yahoo, the study section's Directory has more than 10,000 kid-safe websites that are accessible for study. Among the other study aides is a kid friendly World Fact Book and a kid's answer section called Ask Earl. There are several answers to hundreds of submitted questions and your child may also submit questions to have answered. However, you should talk to your child, in that the question may not be answered due to the volume of questions received.

There are other sections to this site, including Games, Music, Movies, Jokes, Sports, Horoscope and ECards.

The games section includes flash based games for the kids to play and game previews for games that can be purchased. The jokes section has many clean, appropriately aged jokes that kids will love. As of last count, Yahoo claims more than 2000 jokes. The movies section includes clips from current kid's movies and DVDs that play in a popup flash player. The sports section includes clips of kids playing sports and flash based sports games. The ECards section is just what it says it is. Your child can type in the first name of a friend and that friend's email address and click send. Yahoo claims it does not keep the email addresses.

The last thing I want to say about this site is the fact that it appears a very safe site. According to Yahoo not only is all content thoroughly researched and scrutinized, but so are any of the people that Yahoo promotes on this site. The Yahoo FAQ sites an example of this, using their music section.

"When new artists make a splash, we thoroughly research their background, song lyrics, photos and videos at Yahoo! Music. If they pass muster, we'll add them to Yahoo! Kids-but we're not finished with them yet. When new music videos are available, we read the song lyrics to be certain they are child-safe; if so, we watch the entire video to be sure all visuals are appropriate. Only then do we add the video to Yahoo! Kids"

Now, if you do find something that you believe is objectionable, Yahoo asks that you report it immediately.

I firmly believe that the Yahoo Kids site is one that is very kid and family friendly, and one that I personally have no problem allowing either of my daughters to use. Check it out!

Eric

New Column

If you take a look to the left of this post, you'll notice a new image. It says "I'm a columnist at Dad-Blogs.com". I was accepted to start writing a weekly column about Kid and Family friendly websites and I am very excited about this opportunity.

I plan to post the piece here as well after posting on Dads-Blogs.com, so stay tuned.

If you want a sneak peak, then visit the first post at Dad-Blogs.com, titled A Review of Yahoo! Kids.

Check it out!

A Good Time Had By All Tonight

So tonight we split up the parenting time. My wife went to our daughter's school with our oldest daughter, to help out with the fifth grade graduation ceremony that happened tonight. Apparently this is a tradition, and my wife signed up to head it up this year. I talked to my oldest just now and she said she had a good time; of course, she was with her friends as well.

Now my youngest daugheer and I, well we went fishing!

This is how the story goes:
We blazed a new trail through weeds taller than my daughter, descended a rocky outcrop, waded through the river of sticky mud, climbed the tall mountain of rock, waded through deep river water, and then finally found our honey hole.

We pulled out seven fish, with 1 sunfish, five perch, and 1 largemouth bass, that jumped completely out of the water right in front of my daughter.

We only really got in about an hour and a half of fishing, but it was worth it.

A good time had by all.

I Was In Prison This Past Saturday

You never know what freedom is like until you've been to prison, even for one day. As I posted earlier, I had signed up to go with the Bill Glass Prison Ministry to one of two prison facilities in Bonham, TX this past Saturday. It was an interesting experience.

Let me give you the facts of the trip first:

There were 411 men and women who went as volunteers. Bikers, Professionals, you name the social status and it was represented. In fact there were so many volunteers that the ministry was turning people away! 300 went to the Choice Moore Unit, and 110 joined me at the Buster Cole State Jail Facility. There had to have been over 100 bikers there, (and yes, they call themselves bikers) with mostly Harleys, but there were some Hondas, and other Japanese bikes.

The speakers included Keith Davis of the New York Giants, Rich Garza, the Chaplain for the San Antonio Spurs, Another who's name escapes me at the moment, and Jack Meeks, the famous NASCAR driver, who brought the winning car from Daytona with him. There was a band that played most of the day, Namesake. If you hear that this band will be playing near you, I suggest you go see them. They were fantastic!

The main reason we were there was to tell them the Good News of Christ, and what it meant, and how to receive Christ and become a follower of Christ. I won't call it a success, but the final talley was 111 verbal commitments, surrendering to Jesus, 10 rededications and several who reconfirmed their faith. Now it is up to the chaplaincy to help these baby Christians grow in their faith.

Now, my personal experience went like this: when we were in Freshman training, I had the chance to ask the chaplain if he had any Wiccans, Pagans, or Druids on the site. He affirmed that he did, and that was the end of that, or so I thought. God did have a devine appointment for me I believe, because of the first two men I approached, one was a follower of Christ, and his bunkmate was Wiccan! I don't believe in coincidence. Now, Joshua, the Wiccan did not make a commitment to Jesus that day, but I believe that a seed was planted, just as one was planted in my heart 12 years ago. Joshua and I talked for most of the time I was there, and he did promise to read the Bible again, but with a fresh perspective.

I ask everyone who reads this to pray for him, for protection from the army of darkness that surrounds him and his family, to lift him up and for people to give him Godly counsel about this. In other words, let there be someone to water that seed planted. Two others I ask prayer for are Matthew and Austin.

So that is it for now. I will describe the actual feelings of being on the inside, if only for a day at a later time.

Until then, have a blessed day!

Going to Prison Part 2

I received my card in the mail telling me where I will be going on the 30th. I will be helping the Bill Glass Ministry at the Buster Cole State Jail facility in Bonham.

Again, I would like to ask all those who read this blog to pray for those on the inside to have receptive hearts, and be eager to listen to the salvation message that will be presented. I would also like to ask for prayer for good sunny weather (it will be held outdoors) and for a peaceful time at that unit.

Also, pray for me, for boldness in presenting the message if I am called upon to do so.

Thanks!

Eric

Going to Prison

So, did I get your attention? Good.
Yes, I am going to go to a prison unit, but not for a crime, and not to stay. I will be going with the Bill Glass Champions For Life Prison Ministry.



This is the first time I have done anything like this and I will have to admit, I am a little bit nervous. Nervous about talking about Jesus and possibly leading someone to Christ. Normally I am a very private person when it comes to my faith, but here I will be talking openly about faith, using the tools the ministry uses.

So I am asking for prayer as I get ready to do this on the 30th of this month. Pray that I will be used for God's purpose, to do whatever needs to be done for His glory and honor, and that the guys on the inside who will be there to hear the featured speakers will be open to receive what is said to them, and ready to make that commitment to Christ.

Thanks.

Soccer Practice -- My Youngest

I actually do like attending soccer practice with my girls. Not only does it give me time to watch their skills grow and mature, but it gives me time to take pictures of things in action. I wanted to share a couple of the ones I took yesterday.


I posted this to my JPG Page, and I had a comment on it this morning.

Nice style we could do with her on our team if she was a little older.

I couldn't be prouder.

Here is the other one of my youngest:


So there you have it. Another great day.

I am still attending the virtual conference. Have a great day!

Attending A Virtual Conference

Work can sometimes really be fun. Today, tomorrow and Friday, I am attending a web based virtual conference hosted by the SQL Server Worldwide User's Group. Using Twitter to do instant communication, the interaction almost feels like the real thing.

I am really glad to be doing this.

Hope everyone is having a good day.

Some Of My Pictures

Like I posted earlier, I have a new hobby, to replace the SCA...photography. I would like to share some of the better ones I have taken. I do ask that if you download them, please leave me a comment telling me. I do retain the copyright on all of them.

Thanks for understanding.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Thanks again for viewing.  You can see more of my pictures at JPGMag.com.

What I Have Been Doing Lately Part 1

It's been quite a while since I have blogged. For that I apologize, especially to those who read my blog. I have been trying to do more things with my family, and trying not to let a new found hobby interfere with that, but most of the time, failing.

The new hobby I have is photography. It is something that all of us really like, from my daughters, to my wife and to me. It is especially something that my wife and I can share, and for that I am grateful.

But as with most things in my life, for just about all of my life, I tend to focus on one thing at a time and photography is no exception. There have been times when I would prefer taking pictures to interaction with my family. It is something I need to work on; putting the camera up and playing instead. It is something that I did tonight. One small step at a time. Thank God my wife has what seems to be unlimited patience with me. Any other woman would have had her fill.

We have a new church we are attending now. Woodcreek Church. A Bible based church that we all seem to love. My wife and I are going to their Discovery Class, learning more about what it means to join, and what it takes to join. I am very glad to have this back in our lives.

So that is it. In the next post I will be sharing some of my photos. I welcome you to take a look at the rest. You can find them by clicking on the title or clicking here.

A Giveaway I Have To Post Here About.

I know that I said I had set up my giveaway blog to post about giveaways, but I wanted to post about this particular giveaway on this blog as well. It's not everyday that you find a good Bible being given away, but Trish over at Fish With Trish is giving away not only a Bible, but "The Atheist Bible" with commentary by Ray Comfort!

If you have friends, or even family who are atheist, or skeptical about God or Christ, then you need this Bible.

Go over to Trish's blog and enter.

A Rough Couple of Weeks

Okay, so how is this for a rough couple of weeks?

My grandmother passes away.

My car dies two days later, so we have to buy a new vehicle.

My youngest daughter has pneumonia.

My wife not only develops pneumonia, but has to go to the hospital on her birthday because the pneumonia has infiltrated her left lung and caused the lower lobe of the left lung to collapse!

So if you wonder why my posts have slowed down, now you know.

But God is still good, and we are still blessed.

So my grandmother is home, my youngest is much better, we have a Honda minivan that is an excellent vehicle, and we don't have to worry about it breaking down, and my wife will get better as well. She is already improving.

Have a great day!
Eric

Happy Birthday To My Wife

Today is my wife Angela's 30th birthday. The big 3-0. And how is she spending it? Sick with bronchitis and possible pneumonia.

I wanted to take this time to wish the love of my life a happy birthday, and may there be many more together.

I wanted to take this time to wish the love of my life a happy birthday, and may there be many more together.

Love,
Your Husband

Betty Rose Martin (Born Novermber 11, 1928, Died March 1, 2009)

Her name was Betty Rose Martin and she was my grandmother.

I received a call a week ago tomorrow that my grandmother was going into Hospice care. They weren't expecting her to live much longer. They took the tubes out of her, made sure she wasn't in any pain, and moistened her tongue. Her body had stopped taking in any fluids or nourishment, her kidneys had failed and it was just time.

She had spent the last couple of years in a nursing home; now she had come home to die.

She didn't remember anyone, as her memory had gone long ago, and what she saw were people she knew from the past. She would answer questions asked by those that could not be seen.

She had always been a strong woman, a product of the greatest generation to ever live. She had told me stories of WWII and how things were during that time. How things were during the Great Depression, how things were throughout her life. She would always give advice, even when you thought you didn't need it. She never held back the truth either. She was alway truthful even when the truth hurt. I respected that from her, even if I didn't want to hear it at times.

She was a woman who helped lead her family. She gave up a promising gospel career, singing southern gospel to marry my grandfather and eventually run the businesses he founded. She was a businesswoman before women really ran companies. He took care of the working side of it; she took care of the business side and together they were very successful.

She was a deeply religious woman, and by religious I mean she followed Christ. She prayed me through some very tough times in my life. For that I will always be grateful, even if I never told her that.

She was married twice, and widowed twice. She had three children, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. She loved, and was loved in return.

There are not many women like her, and perhaps, will never be again.

She is no longer in pain, she is no long trapped in a frail shell and she is no longer trapped in a mind that could not remember those who visited her.

She is now with her Lord and Savior.

She is now home.

10 Years Old Today!

Today is a very special day for us as our oldest daughter turned 10 at 4:11 AM this morning. Double digits now. Growing into the young lady I know her to be. Soon to be a teenager.

But no matter what, she is still my princess, and will always be. Happy Birthday Princess, Daddy loves you very much.

Blog Contest Winner! -- Money Games

A while back I entered one of the blogging contest, this one on It's a Woman's World, maintained by Petula, for a chance to win a copy of the book Money Games written by Randy Petrick.

Mr. Patrick decided that two winners were not enough, and since he really wants to help people out as much as he can, he decided to give everyone who entered this contest a copy of his book! I was really surprised, but after reading more about him, I can understand why.

The book arrived yesterday, and upon opening it up, I found he had signed it with a personalized greeting on the first page, had included a personal note written to the group of people he sent this batch to, as well as bookmarks. I was impressed.

I will be reading this book over the next couple of weeks and then writing up a review of it.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading!
Eric

Wednesday's Musings

All my life I have been a creative person. I didn't have a whole lot of friends growing up, so like any other introverted child, I invented them. But not one friend, I invented whole worlds, with governments, wars, people, storylines, the whole nine yards. I even wrote a short novel at age 12.

I have written other novels over the years, but never tried to publish them. Sometimes I wonder if I should have. Now however, I plan on doing that. Try to publish the one I am working on now.

I am working on a Christian Suspense/Horror novel at the moment (Yes Virginia, that is a real genre in fiction.) and this is the one I want to try.

Now, it is nowhere near being finished, or for that matter, the main writing hasn't even started. I am currently on writing the notes for the story. Notes on the town it's located in, the characters involved, and the basic story idea. Right now I am up to 48 pages of written notes. Novels do take planning and preparation.

So I will keep you up to date on this. It's a long term project, one I expect to have completed by this time next year. Who knows, perhaps I will start putting some of it on here for feedback.

So have a great day and as always, thanks for reading.

Eric

Tuesday's Ramblings

I have had issues with my weight for most of my life. I was extremely heavy in High School, and through most of my adult life, with one period of time in 1999 to 2001, I have been over 300 pounds. Dieting is hard for me, as I tend to eat out of habit, or as an emotional crutch. I do like to exercise but I tend to stop long before I get back into the habit of it. Usually it's because of a lack of time.

But those are excuses and I know it.

So I am going to do this again, and this time it is a contest. Between me and my best friend, to see who can lose the most percentage of body weight before summer. I would like to be able to put on a swimsuit without having to cover up completely with the overly large t-shirt because I am too embarrassed, or don't want to embarrass my family.

So I weighed in and set the Weight Watchers scale up to maintain my weight and track my weight changes on Saturday. I do have a blog for weight loss and training, and will go back to that and use that to mark all of the stuff I do to lose weight. You can access it here or on the Training button above.

So the weigh in this morning had me down 8.7 pounds. It's all water weight, but hey, it's a start.

Manic Mondays

So I am working when my wife calls and says check out her site. I see pictures of my two daughters. I told her I was going to steal them and put them on my blog here. She will just have to take others. These are mine!









What can I say? I am blessed with two very beautiful children!

Spiritual Sunday

I am currently doing a study on the book of Proverbs. Now I do realize that most people recommend that you simply read a chapter a day to get through this book, but I am trying to not only read through it, but study it verse by verse. I want to really dig deep and learn and understand.

To that end, I am using a really great site I came across called Biblos.com. I am using their lexicon with a multiple translation of the particular verse I am on at the moment. (I highly recommend it.) I am particularly interested in what the actual words meant in the original languages. To me that helps me to gain an understanding I might not otherwise have.

One of the things I have gained is that in first couple of chapters, Christ is pointed to. I noticed that if you substituted Christ for the word wisdom, it really made sense to me. As I was seeing this, I had to read other parts of the Word to see if I was on the right track. So far I believe the Word backs up what I thought about this. I will be posting the scriptures a little later on, to show what I saw.

I realize the most people do not read their Bible, let alone study it, but it is something that I would suggest you do.

Valentine's Day Recap

So Valentine's Day has come and gone and overall it was a really good one. My main present for my wife was me cleaning the kitchen and working on the house. I thought, flowers die, cards get thrown away, and candy gets eaten, but a clean house lives on...for a least a day!

Later on we had a family dinner. Our family, plus my wife's mother and father, and her grandfather as well.



I would like to draw you attention to the chandelier. My wife is quite the artist when it comes to decoration.



The food was fabulous, with a chicken cordon blue casserole, asparagus, green beans, home made bread, with a lemon cake for dessert. My wife outdid herself.

It was a great family night.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wanted to take this time to wish everyone out there a very Happy Valentine's Day today.

Guys, if you haven't done so, make this a special day for your better half. If you have daughters, then do that for them too. Just remember, it does not have to be something extravagant, it could be as simple as washing the dishes, folding laundry, whatever. If you do something extravagant, then great! If you have forgotten, get your butt to the nearest Walgreen's or CVS and get her something quick!

And don't just stop there after midnight. Keep doing things. Fill that love tank. You'll be glad you did.

So Happy Valentine's Day!

Free Form Friday

I was able to do something I haven't been able to do in a very long time. I was able to take off from work for a little while and visit my daughters at school just in time for their Valentine's Day party.

Now, my youngest had already asked that I come, even though I didn't find that out until about 11AM this morning. So I asked, and was told it was fine. Later on, when Mommy asked her if she was surprised that I was there, she told mommy "No, I knew he was coming." How is that for faith?

Here is a photo of my youngest at the party:

Now my oldest was very surprised, and very embarrassed. It was like "Oh NO! Not my daddy!" And to top it off, I had to go and give her a quick hug and kiss on the top of her head in front of her friends! (Bad Daddy! Bad Bad Daddy!) I think she was glad to see me. I think.
I will have to say that fourth grade has changed quite a bit since I was in that grade.

I wasn't able to get a picture of my oldest, as the party had already ended when I got there and they were in clean up mode.

But it was a fun time and I was grateful to be a small part of it.

Thankful Thursdays - Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition

I keep thinking of the things I am thankful for and every time right up there with salvation is my family. My wife and two daughters. They are worth every sacrifice, every drop of sweat, and everything I can and will do in my life.

And thankfulness includes giving up certain things. Not just because as a follower of Christ I am commanded to (you'll understand in a moment), but because of my family and what they mean to me.

I subscribe to Sports Illustrated and one of the most anticipated issues is the annual swimsuit issue. Men you know what I am talking about.

So my wife calls me right before I left for work yesterday and told me my "porn" magazine had arrived. I was a little confused to say the least, and then she explained to me what she meant. I have to admit, that there was a part of me that really wanted to see that issue. And it was waiting for me when I got home.

I opened it and saw a glance of one of the pictures and closed it again. I couldn't do it. What kind of message would that send to my daughters? That for them to get attention from a guy they would have to look like the women in the magazine, or dress (or undress) like them? Would they think that their self-esteem or self-worth had to come from being like that, looking like that, dressing like that?

And how would my wife feel if I started looking at the women in it? I know what I would think if she looked at well tanned, buff and cut guys in skimpy outfits. I want to have more respect for my wife than that, and not only tell her, but try and show her and my daughters what a true, loving husband and father can be like. I may not have had one growing up, but I want to be one.

I threw it in the trash and covered it up with the other garbage.

So I am starting off this particular type of posting then, this Thankful Thursday, by saying I am thankful for my wife and daughters, and their love for me.

Last Couple of Days

It's been interesting the last couple of days. The girls and I have played some more, mostly wrestling, and I wound up with a really terrible headache. I think it may have been an increase in blood pressure, but I'm not sure.

Then last night we had a line of storms blow through. Tornado sirens were going off, the wind whipped the trees, and hail rained down. We had to wake both the girls and move them to our safe location in the house. We don't take chances in times like that. After we moved them, we brought our laptops into the living room because the dish had gone out because of weather.

Now I used to be a storm chaser in Missouri about 10 years ago, and I have seen my share of bad weather, and last night, for the month of February, was pretty bad. I do count ourselves blessed, as the apparent tornado/straight line winds apparently skipped us, then picked back up to the east of us. It was almost as if we had a bubble around us. But that is what prayer is all about.

Anyway, that is basically it for the last couple of days.

Manic Monday Night

Okay so I was excited to have the very first thing I won on a blogger giveaway arrive.



I had entered to win this particular contest, because I thought my youngest daughter would enjoy it.




And for awhile, she did, and so did her big sister.


But eventually my youngest grew bored with the game and it turned into a contest with my oldest as a memory game. A good learning experience that she took as a challenge and I am proud of her for the results.

Then we decided that was enough and we wrestled for a while. Why? Well, my oldest backed her rear end up to me and farted. You have to love the affection in our family. So it turned into a farting contest between me and my two girls, wrestling all the way.

Eventually we all settled down, at the "request" of mommy and my oldest and I sat down and looked at Microsoft's Astronomy application on my laptop.

Then it was bedtime. Another Manic Monday night at my house.

Manic Monday

I am tired this morning.

Here at work we are implementing a new application I wrote and it was supposed to go live this morning. My co-worker that does the process my app replaces didn't get the memo and did the process manually. So I got here at 5:45 and will be here till 4 this afternoon. And I get to repeat it again tomorrow morning, to ensure everything runs smoothly.

I'm not mad or anything, except at myself. I should have made sure everyone knew we were going live.

But at least I beat the traffic, and I got more time in for my morning Bible study, so there is a silver lining to all this.

Hope your Monday is better.

A New Blog For Giveaways

After being turned on to entering blogger giveaways by my wife, I finally decided to split off the giveaway stuff from this blog into a new blog. This blog, named Dad To 2's Giveaways, will be a listing of giveaways from other bloggers, as well as listings from me for items that I will be giving away from time to time.

The final transformation will take place in about 10 days, so bare with me on this, as I am still entered in some contests from this blog.

I have also added links under my header to the new blog as well as my wife's blogs so please go and visit them as well.

Thanks!

If You Have Kids, You Need This

It's called a Medibag 4 Kids and if you have kids, you need this.



You can win it over at LadyBugSoup. I suggest you go and enter.

Win Tools From Loggerhead!

Have you ever heard of LoggerHead Tools? I hadn't either until I stumbled across Lacie's blog and saw she had reviewed some and is giving away some as well.

She is giving away this:



Now, don't get all excited because of the flowers and the card. This is meant to be given away as a gift to someone. Like a valentines day gift to your spouse or whatnot. So guys, look at the tools and overlook the other stuff. Gals, look at it as a great thing to give to your husband or dad or boyfriend. This prize is valued at 74.95

So, head over to her blog and enter. Good luck.

Shower Curtain Giveaway

I know, you must think I have lost my mind entering in to win a shower curtain. But this one is really cool! Take a look!



The maker is Izola. ihchicky over at Everything Up Close is giving one away. Go there and enter...Good luck.

Politics as Usual

I did say that I would blog about politics every now and then. This is one of those times.
President Obama has promised "sweeping reform" in that lobbyist would not be allowed in the white house. He even signed an executive order to that effect. What really wasn't said was that he could make exceptions.

Here is one exception: William J. Lynn III, an ex-Raytheon lobbyist who is nominated as deputy defense secretary.

Then there is the problems with government officials being investigated by grand juries, such as Obama's first choice for commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

And let's not forget about those nominated who have "forgotten" to pay federal and state income taxes:

1. Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help.
2. Timothy Geithner who was confirmed as Treasury secretary despite not having payed $34,000 in income taxes.
3. Tom Daschle who has not paid close to $130,000 in taxes for a car and driver service over three years.

Now, I don't know about you, but if I were to do something like that, the IRS would be all over me, in court, with liens, the whole nine yards.

President Obama needs to keep his word. Replace the new Treasury Secretary who could not figure out Turbo Tax online, and didn't pay his taxes, withdraw Daschle's nomination, as well as Lynn's, and then nominate people who are honest and pay their taxes.

Show America that you keep your word Mr. President. I said I would give you the benefit of the doubt and see what you would be like. So far I am not impressed.

UPDATE:
Daschle has asked Obama to withdraw his nomination. Maybe Obama's team will do a better job of vetting candidates now.

Anyone Want a Free Breakfast From Denny's?

Okay, I have to admit that I frequent a lot of blogs belonging to Moms. One of the main reasons is that Moms tend to find the best deals. For example, the blog Your Coupon Buddy has posted about Free Breakfast at Denny's happening tomorrow. Go get your grub on and have breakfast on Denny's.

Win A Camera!

Do you want this camera? Here is your chance to win it! Go to GERRITNOW and enter in to win! You have until February 22nd.

Good Luck!

Another Giveaway for Guys!!!!

I have found another giveaway for guys! Unbelieveable I know, but go over to Debbie's blog at GERRITNOW and enter in for a chance to win a Columbia Sportswear Men's Steens Fleece.




The contest ends tonight at 11:59 PM so you better hurry!

It's Official -- My Blog Makeover

If you have seen my blog before, you will notice a lot of changes. Gone is the black, dark, serious blog I have kept for almost 3 years. Instead I have opted for a more whimsical, fun type of blog that I am not afraid to show my two daughters. I still will blog occasionally on things I feel need to be blogged on, whether of a political, religious or controversial nature, but I will tone it down some.

I wanted to thank my wife, Angela for making both my new header and button. You can see more of her work on her blog. If you wish, you can grab the button, located on the right side of the blog to put on your blog. I would greatly appreciate it if you did.


Stay tuned to this blog for future giveaways. I have some ideas on things to giveaway that are more guy oriented, so ladies, you stay tuned as well, as your husband, dad, brother, or boyfriend may like what I have to give away.


I hope you enjoy this new format. I would appreciate any and all feedback that you might have for me.

Thanks,
Eric

Spiritual Sunday

I have noticed how some bloggers will name the days of the week and stick to a theme for that day. Well, for Sunday's only I will do that as well. I would like to comment on things I have learned from Bible study, sermons I have heard, on so on and so forth. I do promise to keep them as short as possible.

I am currently doing my study on the Book of Proverbs and a very good question was just asked of me by my oldest daughter. Why do I mark up my Bible? Why all the colors? I use several highlighter colors when I mark things in my Bible during study.

• Blue for things that we are commanded to do, or need to do.
• Yellow for things that are promised to us.
• Orange for things that God does, whether to those who follow him, or those who do not.
• Green for things that we are to avoid altogether, or that people do that God cannot stand.
  

I explained this to her, and I am not sure she may have understood it or not, but it is my hope and prayer that a seed was planted, that she would start her own study soon.

So tell me, do you mark your own Bible? What colors do you use and why?

Have a blessed day!

Fireproof

On our date night last night we watched the movie Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron and Erin Bethea.

If you have not seen this movie then I highly recommend it!

The synopsis of this movie is that Caleb, who is a captain in the local fire department is having major marital problems after seven years of marriage. The couple have drifted so far apart that they are ready to move on without each other.

Caleb talks to his parents, particularly his father, a born again Christian, who tells him how their marriage was saved by something called the 40 day love dare. He challenges Caleb to do this.

While hoping The Love Dare has nothing to do with his parents' newfound faith, Caleb commits to the challenge. Now, I am not going to ruin the movie here, so I will say you need to watch the movie to find out if it works or not.

The movie is unashamedly Christian and gives the gospel message of Jesus Christ. If you are not Christian, then be prepared.

The DVD came out on Tuesday.

If you want more information on the movie or the Love Dare, click the link below.

Date Night

To all the married men and dads out there, you need to have a date night with your wife. It is that simple. For those with kids, ship the kids off to the baby sitter and then spend the evening with your wife. It is refreshing, fun and most of all, it helps bring that love, fire and intimacy back into your marriage. Now it is not usually a one shot deal that will turn your marriage into a marriage in which all is happy and everyone sings, dances and throws flowers into the air, but it will certainly lead you off into the right direction.

My wife and I had really what amounts to our first one last night. The kids were at the grandparent's house, and we had a candlelight dinner, and then settled into watch Fireproof. If you haven't seen this movie, then you should. I will blog about that in the next post.

There is a lot to be said about the feeling you get, sitting next to each other in that closeness, with really no cares at that moment. I enjoyed it and look forward to the next date night we have.

So if you have not had one, do one. If you have had one, have more. They can and usually are a marriage strengthener.

Pocket Purifier Giveaway!

Kimberly, over at She Scribes, is giving away, not just one, but two Pocket Purifiers. If you don't know what they are, don't worry, just click on the title or on her blog in this post and you will find out. She does a wonderful job of reviewing them.

Good Luck!

Win A Build-A-Bear Gift Card!

For those with kids who love Build-A-Bear, go over to Shannon's The Mommy-Files and enter in to win a 25$ gift card. I did!

Good luck!

Something for the Men to Win!

Okay men and those who love Japanese Animation, Valerie over at Mom Knows It All is giving away an awesome prize:


That's right. It's a Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan Goku figure.

I don't know about you, but I am really hoping to win this one. Go over to her site and enter.