BIG WEEKEND... Jen is home and Ham radio contest

I haven't had a chance to update my blog this week. Last weekend was busy, Saturday night was fun hanging out with everyone for Jens birthday at The Iguana Grill, even though we did not all get to sit together or at the same time.Thanks for everyones patience and understanding. I know Jen has allot of people who love her and wanted to be a part of the celebration, but I think we were both suprised at how many came out.Thanks a ton ,we really look at all you guys as family and it meant allot to us both.We love you guys.

Saturday was really fun for me as well.Before going to Jens birthday gathering, I went to Dalton Georgia with my uncle and fellow ham radio operator, Kevin, to go to the Dalton Ham Fest.I always love going to these things, you see so much radio equipment and a ton of strange people.I know it seems weird to those of you who do not know about this strange hobby I have, especially since I have never really shared this side of myself with the majority of you who read my blog.The best part about going to the Dalton Ham Fest is getting to go to Sticky Fingers BBQ in Chattanooga. This is by far the best BBQ joint around and I really wish they would bring one to B'ham.

Anyway the rest of the week was BLAH! Sunday we skipped church since Jen had a ton of things to do before she left for Louisiana so we were busy getting laundry done and the girls things ready for the following week.Tuesday was about the only day that I really had a great day. It started in the morning after I dropped the girls off at school, I was driving to work and I turned on my ham radio and started scanning the dial, I head a distant station calling CQ (CQ means "is any station listening" This is waht you say when you are trying to make contact with another ham radio operator)the signal was weak for a minute and then came booming in really loud, the stations call was UA3BS, I am not really familiar with all the prefixes for other stations out side the US. I knew as soon as I heard it it was an international call sign.Anyway we made contact with one another and swapped greatings and locations, thats when I found out he was in Russia.I was like WOW!!!, this is huge. I have spoken to European countries before on my radio at the house, but it was really cool to do it while I was driving to work in my truck.Anyway we spoke a few munutes and then the static covered his signal up so I begin to scan around some more when I heard another station calling CQ, it was a guy from Italy who had a really strong signal and we talked all the way until I got to work.So the rest of the day for me was awesome, just because of the excitment of making those two contacts going to work.I know I am weird,but I love this stuff.Later that night after I got home from work I turned my radio on and begin to make a bunch of contacts all over the mid-west and even a few into California. The girls were at Jens moms house, so I could concentrate on radio time.

The rest of the week was so so, each day me and the girls, including Pam Pam, was missing Jen more and more.

Well today is Friday and Jen is on her way home.And I am very excited.This weekend will be another busy one, we have Shocker practice tomorrow and all weekend there is a International DX contest( another ham radio event.DX is short for long distance communications,don't ask me why it just what the decided on 100's of years ago) During a 48 hour period starting tonight at 6 PM, a ton of amateur radio operators will see how many international contacts they can make. I will not really be participating in the contest since we will so busy, but I do plan on getting on the radio and making a few contacts.And Jen will be home so the girls and my self will be busy making up for the lack of mamah or mahma time.



Have a great weekend!

Jens Birthday

Today is Jens birthday. She is now 34 and I can say now that I am married to an older women, at least for the next few months. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!!!!!!!

I love her so much!!!!!!

Friday :o)......Started out good.But now....:o (

Today is Friday. Yessssss. It has been one crazy work week, my boss was gone most of the week so I was left to carry the load.FUN!

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and we had a wonderful dinner that Jen cooked for us.Cheese Ravioli and Chicken and Prosciutto Tortellini YUM!!!!!!! And then there was the brownines we had for desert. What a way to top off a great dinner. We gave the girls all the love the could handle, at one point Hannah said " Dad, I can't breathe", I quess I do have a tendency of lovin to hard.

While typing this blog, Jen called to tell me that my mothers best friend since kindergarden, Tiva Walls, may not make it through the day. She had a liver transplant back before Christmas and she has been having problems off and own ever since the operation. Her husband James past away about a year ago from a heart attack. It is funny how one phone call can change the way this blog is heading. I have a heavy heart, I am hurting for my mom and Tivas two daughters, Dawn and Julie, and her grandkids. I know it is hard to loose one parent, but two within a year. The one thing about Tiva that has and will stay with me forever, is how she would get excited and pinch the closest person around her, I have never meet someone as happy and ecxited as she would get, you knew as soon as she started laughing, someone was about to get pinched.

Pray for the family and friends during this tough time. At least now she will get to be with James for eternity.

Thanks you Tiva for being a great friend to my mother and a wonderful person, I am so greatful that you were in my life.

CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!

Literally! I went down in the basement last night to start washing some clothes, as soon as I opened the door to the basement I heard water dripping as I looked to the left of the steps I see water drip drip dripping on boxes.So I began investigating the problem, I went back up stairs and looked in the main bathroom and was trying to figure out what the deal was. I turned off the water to the toilet, I turned around and looked in the tub and I saw a small bit of water begin to back up in the tub.So I went to the other bathroom and got the plunger to go and plunge the tub. I plunged a couple of times and the normal dirty water, hair, funky black pipe stuff came out of the drain. After the third really good plunge I was reminded of a quote from the movie Young Guns,from one of the members of the posse tracking Billy the Kid who said,

Cowboy 1) "S**T!"
Cowboy 2) "What?"
Cowboy 1) " I mean I found some,horse s**t."

Except this was not from a horse. So needless to say I was not very happy.Jen got the girls ready and went to her moms house to spend the night.Me and Pam Pam, cuddled up in the bed and went to sleep.

Jen is such a wonderful wife, she took the day off so the someone could come over and fix the problems, now lets hope it does not cost much.

Other than that problem, the weekend was great! Friday we went to my new favorite Mexican restaurant, The Iguana Grill.I absolutely love tamales, but I haven't been able to find a really good tamale.Either it is too dry or they cover it with a chili sauce or a salsa which makes it soggy.Here they put a really good gravy on it so it keeps it moist but not soggy.Simply the best tamales ever,and the decor in there is simply beautiful.

Saturday was the first Shocker practice of the year.A few of us got together and threw the ball around for a few minutes and then went to the batting cages at Spain Park for a few rounds.Later that night we dropped the girls off at mom and dads and then went to Teds Montana Grill and had a gigantic buffalo burger,I LOVE BUFFALO!!!.
Then we went and walked around Best Buy for a few minutes.Then went back to the house and watched "The Assasination of Jesse James by The Coward Bob Ford",excellent movie.

Sunday, went to church worked on my antennas and then delt with the crap.

Hopefully today will be better.Bible study tonight, which will be awesome.

Monday night GREAT, Tuesday................

Well like I said Monday night was great and it was so fun sitting with family and discussing what Phillipians 1 meant to all of us.

You know it is kind of weird and at the same time awesome when everyone gets pretty much the same thing out of the scripture, but at the same time say it in ways that makes you understand Gods word better.I strongly beleive if anyone wants to grow to understand Gods word, you got to gather as a body of Christ and talk about it.There is just something about hearing what I already feel come out passionatly from someone elses heart.Simply amazing!!!!!!
I am so excited to start preparing for next week.

Well Tuesday was......well it started out kind of wierd. I took off work to go with Jen to her appointment for a certain procedure that took up the first half of the day.I am sitting in the waiting room waiting for Jen to get things...checked out.I look around and there is about 30 people all waiting, like me, for their loved one to have the same procedure done.And I tought to my self " WOW I did not realize this was such a busy type of procedure". I was thinking that there would be 2 or 3 people.Anyways I brought my book, Dee Browns History of the West,because I am such a nerd when it comes to old west history, when this bouncy middle age women with a Puma sweat pants and sweat shirt, came around the corner and sat one seat down from me. We made eye contact and smiled at one another and then I went back to reading my book.About two lines into book her phone begins to ring, she proceded to broker some kind of major real estate deal that I guess could not wait till she was back at the office.All the people at Brookwood heard every word and it was as if I was sitting right in front of a big PA speaker at a Bama game.Now I have bad ADD, so I fought my way having to re-read several lines just so I could understand what it was I was reading.After several phone calls and about 15 minutes later she put her phone down. But continued to check it regularly,like ever 5 seconds. I finally got into a good groove when what appears to be her 20ish year old daughter came and sat right next to her.Then I began to get the low down on everybodys boyfriend and what happend over the weekend and BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!! Finally I got the news that Jen was ready and I could bring the truck around to the curb and wait for her.THANK YOU JESUS!!!

After that we were starving so I drove by Full Moon and picked up some lunch and went home. While Jen was sleeping I was able to get some radio time in and spoke to several people from up north, including and elderly gentleman by the name of Abe from New York, who I could tell was very excited to speak to me. We spoke for 30 or 40 minutes.He was such a friendly voice and I can only wonder if he ever gets out of the house much. It is times like these that I really enjoy the hobby of ham radio.Being able to be a friend to someone like Abe, hundreds of miles away who may other wise be sitting at home lonely

God bless

Back to what I love!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today as I sit at work anticipating tonights bible study. It has been years since Jen and I lead an "up to your neck in the word" bible study.Back when we were at Morgan leading the College ministry we would get so excited about Sunday and Wednesday nights when we would gather with the group and hash out some good old bible study. Sitting for hours talking about scripture and how it relates to our personal walk with Christ as well as how society and the church interprets the scripture.

As we begin our walk through Philippians I hope to gain a further love for the works of Paul. I have always been a huge fan of the letters he wrote and as I've started digging into the history of Philippi ,the time frame and understandning of what Paul was going through, I am simply blown away with the love he had for Christ. He edured so much more than we do today just to spread the message of Christ. I think we take so much for granted in the good old USA. We have so much freedom to speak about the life of Christ and the life changing stories of ourselves and others, but we just sit back and act like it is not a big deal.When I read about Paul and the early church and think about the struggles they went through, I am reminded of the stories Jens mother Nancy would tell us about the underground church in China today, and how many Christ followers would just "dissapear" never to be heard from again.It makes me wonder, how many "Christians" would risk everything just to tell one lost soul about Christ.

My work day

Well I start this Friday off like I do everyday,help get the girls ready, getting Noelle to school and talking with my drivers about what the have to do for the day,sometimes I feel more like a babysitter than a boss.This usually takes away from my radio time while I drive to work.


(I will use this time to talk tell you about my "radio time".I am an amateur radio operator also known as a ham, my call sign is KE4UMC. It is sometimes very difficult to talk to people about my hobby because alot of people just don't understand.They do not understand why I want to get on the radio an talk to people all over the world, I can't really explain it, but there is something about my voice being transmitted in to an analog radio and then sent out over the airwaves and then bounce around the atmosphere until it drops out and land thousands of miles away in small town on the Isle of Crete south of Greece and talk to a guy I will most likely never see. I have always been fascinated with the sky, whether is with radio waves, astronomy or meteorology it is just amazing how things work.So there will be times when I will blog on my ham radio activities, which may not be exciting to some people, but this is my blog and I can write whatever I want to.)


After I get to work I take a few minutes to answer emails, check reports and make sure all my drivers get off to a good start.

The rest of my day is pretty boring , talk with the drivers, talk with our sales lady, talk with our customer service dept, talk with the customer, fill out tons of reports and prepair the routes for the next day for all my guys. Then I leave, once again turn on my ham radio and usually talk with Luke,Bob, Scott, Lin,Bobby,J.T. or Nathan on my way to pick up Noelle.Then when we get home we are greeted by the best family in the world Pam Pam is usually the first to greet us by jumping up and down and licking all over my hands then I see my lovely wife Jen and my oldest daughter Hannah and I know I am home.


Sometimes work is tough but I always know when I get home to see my girls all my problems seem to go away.


On another note I am very excited about the Bible study that we will be holding at my house starting on Monday 2-4, I am sure as I dive deep into it I will have a ton of things to blog.



God bless