Friday, October 28, 2005

Oh C'mon...

There is no radical group I dispise more than PETA. Check THIS out. How the heck do you make DOG FOOD without testing your product on DOGS!?!?!?!?!?

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Gloomy

Not the weather, just life lately. I'm in this total funk right now. Most of it stems from financial woes and the job transition. I'm stressed about leaving and all of the reprocutions for Concordia. I know I shouldn't care, but I've been here for five years and have a lot of good relationships. I'm stressed about starting the new job. I'm stressed about how we're going to make it. It's all ridiculous, I know. I should thank my lucky stars that my family is blessed so incredibly the way we are. It is so easy to say "I fully trust in God and lift all of this into his arms, his will be done". It's a whole other thing following through and believing it. It's not that I don't trust God to take care of us, whatever that means. I'm just scared about the current part of the journey he is taking us on.

Plus, I really miss my family. I hate that even when I'm not working nights, I only get about an hour in the evening with my kids and after Abby and Drew go to bed, I don't get a ton of time with Melissa because we still have James to take care of. The nice part about the new job is even though I'll still be short on time with them in the evenings, I'll have a lot more full days off to stay within the 40-hours deal. I think that will be huge. Abby suffers so much when she doesn't get much time with me. She acts out and she's up alot all night, trying anything she can to get her daddy-cup filled.

I'm also dealing with alot of guilt. I guess it's just a part of life. I've heard so many similar situations. The kids are really starting to take Melissa for granted. Since she's home with them all day, doing the discipline and everything else (and with our crazy two, theres a lot of discipline!), she gets turned into the bad guy. Then daddy comes home and it's all fun and games, because there is so little time, we try and make it as good as possible. Mom just gets the short end of the stick and I HATE it. I hate to see me daughter treat her with disrespect and be all cuddles and love with me. It's not fair. And unless me being home more with the 4o-hour a week job can help fix it, I just don't know what to do. I don't want my time with them to be negative, but I don't want the kids to take my wife for granted, either. It's not fair for them to grow up viewing me as the "Fun" one. It just sucks.

And on top of all of that, My office looks VERY depressing right now. I've taken down all of my pictures and calendars and U2 posters and Angels paraphenalia and my diploma and my knick-knacks. All I have left my favorite picture of my wife and a tub of tootsie rolls. Everything else is boxed up. It's REALLY wierd. Packing up five years worth of memories and walking away from a place that I have loved for most of that time.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

An Old Friend

A friend of a friend, really. Anj Price was on Dr. Phil tonight. Her and her mom and sister. It was pretty interesting. It was all about her being out and her family dealing with it. We have it saved on TiVo. Roland, I'll keep it on there for when you get here.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Better late then never...

I haven't posted in forever. Sorry about that. I've been a little busy since we returned from the East Coast and the GREATEST CONCERT OF ALL TIME (I'll try and post on that later). The biggest news of all: I got a new job! I will be leaving Concordia and I will begin my job as the first Sports Information Coordinator at Citrus College in Glendora on November 2nd. It's a very exciting time for our family.

This will be a shorter commute (same distance, better traffic) and it's a 40-hour per week position. While I will still work quite a few nights and weekends, the 40-hours will keep me home ALOT more than I am at Concordia. Although I'm actually taking a pay cut for the first year, at a state school, I'll be getting automatic raises every year, plus any standard of living stuff that our union gets us. Praise God that he answered our prayers to get me out of a negative-and-getting-worse situation at Concordia and getting me a job that will allow me to spend more time with my family. PLUS, I'll be working for my old boss, who left in June 2004 to become the Athletic Director at Citrus.

It's kinda wierd this whole thing at Concordia. There are enough people and situations that I am unhappy with that it will be pretty easy to leave. On the other hand, I really care about a few of the people in athletics and they are the ones who will get hit the hardest by my leaving in the middle of the season. Our Volleyball coach is the BOMB and I will miss her. It sucks to leave in the midst of her season. My assistant SID is going to get hit the hardest and I feel bad for her. She's the assistant women's basketball coach and at the same time that games begin for the team, she's going to get more work on the sports information side until someone is hired. Also I fear that a lot of my work is going to get wrongfully filtered to our Assistant AD and our administrative assistant. They are two of my closest friends here. Fortunately, my favorite coach (yeah, I know, I shouldn't play favorites) is the softball coach, and his team doesn't get rolling until January, so he'll be fine.

Please keep our family in your prayers for a few things:
1. The transition of leaving Concordia and preparing things for whoever gets my job.
2. Starting a new job and all of the stresses that naturally will come with that. I have alot higher expectations on myself to make an impact right away then Citrus probably has for me, so I know I'll be taking on a heavy load right away.
3. Our financial situation. While the Lord has blessed us with a better job, it's still not a job that will pay us hardly what we need to survive (at least for a while). We are really stretching ourselves thin these days just to survive. Please pray that the Lord will bless us and provide for us.
4. Most importantly: Praise God that I got the job and that I get more time with my family!!!

Thursday, October 06, 2005

You can forget how to sit still

Start spreading the news. We're leaving today!!!

Off to the Eastside!!!

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Vacation: Two Days / U2NY: Four Days

Holy cow. I am so excited for our pending trip to the East coast. Thursday afternoon we fly out of Long Beach for Dulles. We'll get to D.C. around midnight and drive an hour to Baltimore to stay with our friends Abby and Dennis. Friday we'll putz around Baltimore, go see Camden Yards, maybe an aquarium. Neither of us has ever been there.

Saturday morning we'll leave butt-ass early for New York. We'll check into the hotel in Seacaucus then catch a ride into the city. Mel's never been there, so the itinerary will be completely her call (I've been there twice), although I do kinda want to go to the "footprint" of the WTC. I stayed at the Marriot that used to exist right under the towers and it's something I feel I need to do, pay respects and what not.

Then, Saturday Night: Madison Square Garden. The boys have sort of gotten back into a rut with the show and it's alot like it was when we saw them towards the beginning. Now they're playing Miss Sarajevo regularly, which is awesome, but not much else has changed. I'm hoping that they will mix it up on the second night in a city they are playing four shows in. I am really hoping that they play "New York".

Anyway, on Sunday we'll drive back to Baltimore and in the evening we are going to get together with Melissa's cousin Bill and his wife Alycia (I hope I spelled that right) for dinner in Virginia. Then it's home on Monday and back to work on Tuesday!