Not much

Greetings
I can not believe that we are just a few days away from Christmas. My how time has flown this year. I think by now many of you already know that Sheila and I have decided to adopt. We are now on the waiting list and can not wait till we are picked to be parents. I can not wait to start spoiling our child. :)

Some of you already know this as well, but for those who do not I have put out yet another CD. This one is for sale and we are using the money to go towards the adoption. The CD is 7.00 and is entitled "A collection of Favorites". The song list is as follows.

1. If that isn't love
2. Amazing Grace
3. What a Friend we have in Jesus
4. What a wonderful world
5. Yes Jesus Loves me
6. I'll Fly away.

I choose the above songs because they are just some of my all time favorites. If you would like a copy please email me or call me. I have decided to not make as many copies as I did before. Of course I did give away over 70 of the first CD "Blessed" but to cut down on cost I thought it might be wiser to produce the CD's as needed.

Blessings till I post again.

A Good Day

I sat down tonight by the Christmas tree and just drifted out into space. I thought about how good of a day it was today. I had very minimal issues to deal with. No one got on my nerves. I did not have to deal with any crazy drivers. Every thing just fell into place. It was the kind of day you would sit back and dream about. I started my morning as I always do at 4 am. Ran down stairs, turned the TV on and rode my bike. I went to McDonalds as I normally do once a week and headed to work to enjoy 2 more miles of walking before starting my day. After I got home tonight I took about a 30 min nap that I had planned all day. I woke up in time for Sheila to get home and have a bite to eat. Then at 7:00 I headed to the gym to enjoy another work out. I have to say there were several "look at me guys" tonight at the gym. And to my surprise a "look at me" girl. I had not observed a look at me girl before. But I guess that should not be a surprise. Maybe my attitude changed today. Perhaps my life was the same as it always is, and I just looked at the glass as half full and not half empty. I enjoyed it any way and at the end of the day, that is what really counts.

Blessings till I post again.

Personalities

Today my chiropractor and I were discussing the gym. I made mention how I have been observing the many different personalities. He agreed with my observations for the most part.

Here are some of the personality traits I have observed.

Look Important Guy: This is the guy who has obviously joined the gym so people can see him there. He spends much time walking around to and fro. We rarely see him doing much exercise. A lot of time is spent drinking water and looking worn out.

Man I look good guy: This guy does exercise but much of his time is spent flexing in front of the mirror. He does look around a lot and tries to see if people are checking him out. He does have some of the traits as look important guy.

Man I look good girl: Same as Man I look good guy.

Never out done guy: This is the guy who is already working out on the same machine as you are. God only knows how long he has been working out when you show up. No matter how long you exercise he will hang in there till you finish. Just so he is not out done. One often wonders how he does not drop over from exhaustion.

The Librarian: 95 percent of the time this applies only to women. No matter what machine they are on. They somehow are able to read their book. One wonders if this is for looks only or if they are really able to keep their place in the book they are reading. I can see a little bit of Look important guy in this person.

The Hopper: This usually applies to people in their early 20’s. I also refer to these people as the ADHD Exerciser. They rarely spend more than 5 mins on a machine before moving on to something else.

Cell Phone people: This does not seem to be gender specific. I think the men and women are split 50/50 on this one. I am amazed that they are able to talk on a phone and work out at the same time. I must admit that in my home gym I am able to talk on the phone while riding my stationary bike. But how anyone can accomplish this on a machine that obviously requires the use of both arms. Well this is just an art form.

The Water Boy: OK this is gender specific. I have only observed this trait in the men only. These are the guys who carry a gallon jug of water with them from station to station. The jug always has a strap attached to the handle for portable ease. I have yet to see anyone drink from the water jug. One can only conclude that the Water boy is nothing more than a converted Man I look good guy.

The lost: These people are rare. And I must admit that it is again gender specific. This is without fail a male trait. They look like they are lost. They can sometimes be spotted doing some exercise. But mostly they are wandering around as if they have lost something or are waiting for someone to ask them if they need help. I have yet to observe any of the lost work up a sweat. They often times have that somber look on their face as if they are there to serve a life sentence. The lost is a friend of the look important guy. After all he is only there for an audience. What better audience than the lost!

Blessings till I post again.

Toilets and the roof

I accomplished two things today. I'll start with the simple thing first. Some of you may not know this, but I am afraid of heights. This comes to a shock to some of you who know that I love roller coasters. This is something that I can not explain, but it just happens to be one of the quirks that make me... ME. Anyway, Earlier this week we finally got someone to come look at our roof. We wanted to make sure that there was no damage from the major wind storm we got over a month ago. Turns out our roof is fine and we have at least 3 more years life on it. The guy did tell me that the pipe that comes out of our roof (there is a word for it but I can't remember it) needed to be spray painted to protect it from rust. It has already started to rust and we need to stop it in it's tracks or we will have major issues. So we headed to our local home depot and purchased the product needed to do the job. Today I got on top of the roof and painted that pipe. It was not the highlight of my day, but I'm sure I looked silly taking baby steps across that roof today. I did manage to get a few scrapes on my hands from crawling up and down off the roof. Now to the big accomplishment. Our toilet has been making a loud sound lately. We know that the Guts (thats what I call it) has gone bad. So I went to home depot yet again today and purchased new guts and attempted to tackle the job myself. I am pleased to report that I not only finished the job, but as a shock to me IT ACTUALLY WORKS!!! Yeah to me. I hate to toot my own horn, but for me to do something and it to actually work. I HAVE IMPRESSED MYSELF. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.

Blessings till I post again.

random

This past Sunday the sermon kept my attention from beginning to end. I even took notes! The sermon was about complaining. My notes are still in my car so I will have to put this into my own thoughts. But the long and short are as follows.

When we complain we do this mainly to blame someone else. Thought: How much time a day to you spend complaining? When we complain it does not change the situation and the only thing that can come is bring us unhappiness. When you think about it, it does make sense. Our words and attitudes are contagious. If we bring negativity by complaining to friends, co-workers or loved ones They are often sucked right into our pity party. Often times in agreement and sometimes they may try to shed new positive light on the situation. Maybe try to get us to look at it from another point of view, hopefully positive. But more often than not they will justify our negative complaints. I really have tried this week to watch my complaining. I've tried to put a positive spin on anything that came up. Even made it a point to stop a few times during the day and ask myself if I had been complaining today. I have to admit that a few times I really had to think about it. It seems that complaining is such second nature to us that we often do it and don't realize it. I'm really gonna try to focus on looking at the good and not the bad this coming year. I need to learn to not sweat the small stuff. Often times when I complain, it is about something that I can not change anyway. So really what good is complaining about something if I can not change the outcome anyway? I know that this is not going to be an easy task to complete. Will I ever be 100% complaint free? Surely not. But maybe I can get to 99.9%. That may be an unrealistic goal as well but I have to start somewhere. I hope that you were able to take something away from tonight's post. If I can remember to get my notes I'll post them in a future blog.

Blessings till I post again.

Stepping outside my box

I stepped outside my box tonight. I went to the gym and did my 20 mins on the elliptical machine. I normally head to the theater to do 20 mins on the treadmill and catch a movie at the same time. Well tonight's movie was not appealing to me because it was snow dogs. A good Disney movie non the less. But When my nephew was 6 years old he spent the night with us and I got to watch snow dogs with him 6 times in a row. That did that movie in for me. So I skipped the movie and noticed a new machine that I had not seen there before. It was the stair stepper. I did 20 mins on it and I liked it. I have to say it wore me out though. I was dripping with sweat and felt like my heart was gonna jump right out of my chest. But I'm hooked. I'm glad that I gave it a try and did something new tonight.

Blessings till I post again.

Election and Love

With the election drawing near I feel obligated to say that I am Rob Baugh and I approve this message.

I always dread elections because it means we have weeks... NO Months of hearing that dumb phrase I am so and so and I approve this message. Well if you did not approve the message we would not be watching the commercial now would we. I admit that it's small stuff that gets on my last nerve. My wife finds it funny that when the big storms hit our life I just stand by and let it happen. She thinks I don't care. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I do care! However I know that when all the chips fall and we pick up the pieces that God has extra pieces laying around for us to pick up. When we put the mess back together it is normally bigger and better than it was before the storm. But let something small or minor happen and it just really rocks the boat for me. I can't explain why this happens. I used to be a very patient person and nothing ever seemed to bother me. Well things did bother me, I just never showed it. But in the past few years I have let some emotion come to the surface and people are starting to see what has been bottled up for the past 30 odd years. Some people say that I have changed. I have not changed. I am still the same old Rob that I always have been. The only difference is that now I have let the world see a little more of who I am. Rather that be good or bad. I pray that it's more good than bad. I also pray that God will continue a work that he started in me the day I was born. I know that God has a special purpose in life for me and I do hope that I find that purpose and that God just pours his blessings on it. I don't know what my special purpose is. I'm still searching and I know that when I find it that it will be full of blessings and surprises. I know that it will mean that I will have to step outside of my comfort zone. I'm ok with that and I know that I'll be kicking and screaming like a disobedient child when I do find it. But after I am done throwing my temper tamper that God will smile down on me and say are you done fussing now? Good now go do my work. God is amazing and his love is unconditional. I don't know how he could ever love a sinner like me. I just know that his word says that he does and I believe it. I'm sure that I am not alone in saying that I have looked in the mirror many times and asked myself how he could ever love anyone like me. At the end of the day when all is said and done and I have messed up once again he is still standing right there beside me with arms stretched wide open to smother me with his love. God is so good to me and he has blessed me by having such a wonderful wife, who loves me so much. My heart was so hard and it had a lock on it that no one could get into. My wife of 10 years now, was the only one who had the combination to that lock. I'm glad that she did and that she came into my life. Without her I would not know what to do. I value her opinions and her approval. Some would say that I am whipped. But I would argue that I am not whipped, I am loved.

Blessings till I post again.

Stuff

Do you ever feel like you have a lot going on in your life but when you put it all down on paper the list of things to do isn't long at all? Sometimes that is how I feel. I sometimes think I have just so many things to do and so little time to do it in. Which is true for the most part. But it's a bunch of little things. The things that take mere seconds to complete yet you put it off for days even weeks till you put your foot down and do it. That's kind of how I have felt this week. I just think I have so much to do and how will I ever get it done. But I know not to worry about it because when I set my mind to something, the job will get done. I'm sure I am not alone in the way I am. Tomorrow is another day and maybe I'll get something, or ANYTHING done tomorrow.

Blessings till I post again.

Debates

I'm watching the VP Debates. I don't know much about politics but that never stopped me from having an opinion. A friend of mine told me tonight that he finds it very disturbing that many people will vote based on things such as the color of skin, or "I just like him/her". What ever the reason most people spend more time researching a car they are about to purchase than they do researching a candidate that they are about to vote for. I too find this disturbing. I think you owe it to yourself to research the candidate before ever stepping into a both to vote for him. Do not take anything you hear in the media as fact. I have found that many of them are one sided. You really should get online, open a news paper or ask people who are knowledgeable about the "FACTS" before you decide who you are voting for. I have always been a republican and for the most part have always voted that way. But if I feel that a democrat is more qualified to do the job I will vote for him or her. I hope that everyone gets out to vote this year. And please don't just vote democrat or republican because thats the party your parents always voted for or your spouse votes that way. Spend a little time and do some research and even pray for God to help you make the right decision.

Blessings till I post again.

Thankful

It's not Thanksgiving yet, but I was just sitting here listening to the quiet of the night (and the water in the aquarium). I just started thinking how Thankful I am. I am so blessed and have so much to be Thankful for. I wonder if other people ever take time out of there day to go through their own personal Thankful list. I have the most beautiful, caring wife that anyone could ever hope for. I have a roof over my head. We are both blessed to have our on cars for transportation. We have running water, Electric, food, jobs, health, the list just goes on and on. In the times we live in now it is so easy to complain about the high cost of gas. Thank God we have gas to complain about. We complain about loosing electric for a week. Thank God we have electric to loose for a week. We complain if the person in front of us at the grocery is slower than slow. Thank God we are alive and standing in a long line. Does this mean that I do not get frustrated and inpatient? of course not. Just ask my wife, She will tell you how impatient I can be. But Thank God I am alive to be impatient. I need to work on being more patient. I used to be a very patient person but the older I get the more impatient I seem to become. I need to work on that. But tonight I am so Thankful that I am alive and have so many special people in my life who encourage me and love me.

Blessings till I post again. (Be Thankful!!!)

oh sweet power

Our power came back up yesterday (Wednesday) at 5:53pm. We lost power on Sunday at 1:00pm. It wasn't that bad being without. Just a minor inconvenience. It could have been much worse than it was. We stayed with Sheila's Mom until we got power back. Times like this make you appreciate how good you have it. Our biggest tragedy was that we lost 5 of the 6 fish in the pond. Sheila called feeders supply and was told that they died because of lack of oxygen in the water. That's because the pump was not running and putting oxygen in the water. Chloe was the sole survivor. We will replace the ones that died in the spring. We lost a big pine tree to the storm. This pine tree has been through alot. It has been hit by lightning 2 times in the past 3 years. Who says lightning does not strike the same place twice. Matter of fact the empire state building gets struck by lightning several times a year. So that myth was busted long before our poor pine tree came into play.

We purchased a wii fit on Monday. We finally got to use it tonight. You really get a full body work out on it. I can't wait to work out again tomorrow night.

Blessings till I post again.

Bigger than I thought....

The CD I made turned out to be a bigger hit than I thought. My disclaimer is that I am not happy with it. But several people have said they love it. So I won't argue, but just know I am not 100 percent happy with it. Of the 30 copies I made I have one left and at least have 6 more people who wish to get a copy. I will get those made in the very near future. The "Big" announcment that some people already know about has cause my next cd to take a back seat for the moment. It will be made and hopefully will not be as long as the first one was (8 months in production I think). I do have 2 tracks made so far for the new CD and as a teaser I will spoil it and tell you that one of the songs I recorded is "What a wonderful world". I love this song and I hope that it blesses all that hears it. That was my prayer for the original CD I made. Thats why I choose the title "Blessed". Not because I am blessed, (Though I am) But My prayer was that this CD will minister to those who hear it and may I be a blessing to them. Even though I can't stand the CD I know from the feedback that I have received that my prayer was answered. Thank you to all of you who have told me (Over and over) How much you enjoyed this CD. Also I have to say that I am flattered for those of you who wanted to pay me for it as well. But As I said from the beginning this CD is not for sale. It is a gift from me to you.

Blessings till I Post again.

Old Friends

A few days ago I got a phone call from an old friend. It was a guy I went to school with. I had not talked to him for probably 8 years or better. It was so nice to hear from him. We talked about the good old days and took a long stroll down memory lane. He said something that should not have surprise me, but I admit that it did a little. He said he always admired me and strived to be more like me. He said he could see christ through me. That really blessed me because that is what we should all be striving to achieve. Its always been my prayer that people see christ through me. It was so great to hear that in my life I have done something to glorify the lord. I pray that I continue to meet that goal of mine. I hope that christ's love shows through me in all things I do. I know that I don't always hit that goal. Many times I end up way out in left field. But at least I have the assurance that I have hit that mark a few times in my life. I just pray that I hit that mark more often than not. God Bless you Shawn. You were a real blessing to me.

Shawn also praised the fact that God brought Sheila into my life. I have rejoiced in that as well many times a day. I thank God every day that he brought me such a perfect match as he did. Only God could have brought the two of us together. I know without a doubt that his hand was in it from the very beginning.

Shawn also said he remembered how he would sometimes get upset with me and go home. Only to find me standing at his door step several mins later. He never could understand how I could be so forgiving so quickly. How I never got mad. I told him that I get mad all the time. I just don't show it. Maybe my quickness to forgive has something to do with ADHD, but I tend to think that it is no more than a blessing given to me straight from God. What ever it is, I just hope that I never loose that quality. It's very hard for us (well me anyway) to find good qualities in what we do or what we are, but the one true quality that I know I have is the ability to forgive. It wasn't always easy for me to be forgiving. But thank God that I have that quality now.

Blessings till I post again.

Did you ever get to thinking?

Tonight the question popped in my mind. What is the quality about your wife that you love the most. I know this sounds corny. But I stopped to think about it for a second. I don't think I could narrow it down to just one thing that I love most about my wife. I love that she is beautiful, smart, fun to be around. She has the most tender heart. She has a mind like a steel trap. To be honest there is just not much about her that I am not in love with. Does that mean we don't have disagreements? Of course not. We have our fair share. But in the end we always come out strong and walk away having learned something new about each other. To say the least our marriage is not boring. And if I had the chance to do it all over again. I would in a heart beat.

Blessings till I post again.

Jeff - Dont get a big head.

As often times I took yet another stroll down memory lane. Tonight I don't want my blog to be about me. Instead I want to focus on a very great friend of mine named Jeff.

Jeff is the best friend anyone could ask for. He has been there in my good times and my bad times. Jeff has never been judgmental, but always understanding. I recalled the night we stayed up till the wee hours of the morning working on electrical work in my parents garage. The time that we decided to take a trip to the old waffle house at 4am. The spur of the moment trips we would often take. And even the time he signed up to clean the fun boat on my birthday. I always kidded Jeff about that. But the truth is his friendship has more than made up for that small overlook that I often times kid him about. My advice to my readers is this. If you don't have a Jeff in your life. GET ONE!!!

Blessings till I post again.

Good News - Teaser

Hello once again. It's been some time since I have posted. Our internet has been down for about a week but we are up and running once again. Sheila and I have something exciting in the works but it is to early to disclose any information yet. But I will tell you that it is very exciting and I can't wait to go further into details with you. It's not what you think, but trust me it's big and I'm like a kid who can't wait to open his presents on Christmas morning. There's just nothing like telling you something that is nothing. I admit I hate to be left in suspense. But Sorry, thats all you get for now. NOTHING!!!

Blessings till I post again. (It's really big news)

It is finished!!!

The CD has been completed. I can't say that I am 100% satisfied with the final product, but so far everyone who has listened to it says that I am being to critical. There are currently 25 copies made of which 9 are left. I spent the day finalizing the CD covers and this will come to a shock, I am actually proud of the CD cover. The remaining 9 copies will probably be gone soon. So if any of you who do not have a copy reserved and would like one. Please send me an email and I will be sure to put you on the list. I am going to finish printing the CD covers for the copies that are made. Before I starting printing more and burning more copies I want to make sure I have people to give them to.

Now that that is over maybe I can get back to doing other things like keeping this blog more updated....

Tonight I went for a walk across the 2nd street bridge. I took some pictures that turned out great. I'll have to post them (but not tonight) I took a picture of the sunset which was breath taking. I dont know if the photo will translate that or not, but trust me it was great in person. My Mom and Dad went along for the walk. I think they had a hard time keeping up and I dont think they will be begging to go along again any time soon. But I really enjoyed it. I just love to walk. I love to exercise in general. But I guess that really isn't anything new. Well It's very late and I really have no more to say tonight.

Blessings till I post again.

A late Happy 4th

I've been terrible at keeping this blog update, but I will attempt to do a better job in the future. Since I last posted my Mother in Law purchased for me a professional studio recording microphone. I only had to make a few major upgrades to one of our computers. That being said I am now the proud owner of my very own production studio. I now have no reason to finish my CD. I have been working hard to get this project finished. I have scrapped the original content and have started over. I have managed to get all of the music only converted and put on to the computer. The software is state of the art and does much more than I'll ever know how to use. But I promise that I will be spending every free moment working on the project so I can get it over with. So many people (AKA my mother) is wanting it done yesterday. So I will try to put in some overtime in the next few weekends to get it finished.

Not much else to report right now, but I will try to blog again in the very near future.

Blessings till I post again.

Weddings and Birthdays

Yesterday Saturday June 21st my brother got married. It was a nice ceremony held at his mother and father in laws home. We took some nice pictures and had a nice time. Are you sitting down? I ate not 1 but 2 pieces of cake. Of course I had to spend 2 hours on the bike last night, but that's ok.

Next Saturday the 28th is Sheila's Birthday. She will be 99 years old. Ok I'm kidding. She will be 80. :) Just kidding Sheila. Of course Sheila gets the raw end of the deal. She just gets gifts for her Birthday. I get her! I got the best gift of all because I got the most beautiful woman and she loves me. She is not going to be 80 this birthday, but here is wishing that you reach your 80th birthday. I love you Sheila.

Blessings till I post again.

Stuffed

I wanted to just have a small meal for dinner tonight. I suggested McDonalds and was shot down. Sheila and her Mom wanted the Chinese Buffet. I ate WAY to much. I have not done that for a long time. I'm paying for it now because I have an upset stomach. But That will pass in time. It was good, But as always when I go to a buffet I don't know when to quit.

I recorded 3 tracks on my cd this past week. Actually I recorded 4 tracks and I have to redo 2 of them. The audio level on the music was way to loud. The last two tracks I cut blended very well. My original plan was to have the CD ready by the end of June but it's looking more like July now. I am further along now that I was 6 months ago. So there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Blessings till I post again.

In Studio Thursday!!!

I will be in the studio this Thursday June 12th. The CD that I have talked about recording for months will finally be recorded. I have yet to finish the CD covers. But that is low priority right now. So far I know of 20 people who would like a CD. If you still want to get a copy of the cd PLEASE let me know as soon as possible. I hope to have everything finalized by the end of June.

Blessings till I post again.

closer to recording

Well It seems like I keep giving updates and no release date in sight for the CD. I am finally ready to record my CD and as luck would have it I have a sinus infection. I've been down for the count for a few days and finally feel pretty well, except my singing voice is not back to par yet. So as soon as I kick this nasty sinus infection I am all set to head to the studio. If everything goes well I should have the finished CD by the end of June. The next step will be to get the labels and CD cover's printed. I'll keep you posted. So far I know of 14 people who would like a CD. If you have not yet told me that you want a CD please email me and let me know. I would like to try to have only the number of CD's made that I need. You can email me at Rob.Baugh@insightbb.com. Put in the subject line "YOUR CD" and I'll make sure to read it promptly. I'm bad about not reading emails right away, so this will grab my attention and I'll add it to the list.

Blessings till I post again.

A quick post

I know I have not posted for a while. Time has slipped by and we have been busy. Sheila and I can not thank you enough for the prayers, cards, flowers etc that we received at the passing of her father. We are all doing well, as much as we can. And we appreciate your continued prayers as we try to make sense of all of this. It's times like this that we find out what we are made of. You stop and take inventory of your life and what it means and what it means to those you are close to. I pray that we never loose sight of the important things in life and we cherish every moment that we have together.

Blessings till I post again.

Lester Dahmer 1939 - 2008... We will miss you!

This has been a very difficult time for me and Sheila. Last Monday May 5th we were at my nephews birthday party. We were just finishing up singing happy birthday to him when the phone rang. My brother answered and told us it was Sheila's Mom and she wanted us there immediately. Sheila's Dad appeared to have suffered a mini stroke that turned out to be a full stroke. We believe that he had another stroke on the way from Clark Memorial Hospital to U Of L Hospital. Tuesday things were not looking bad. They had planned to send him to rehab in New Albany on Thursday to start his road to recovery. With each day that came and went he became a little worse. Yesterday Monday May 12th Sheila called me at work and told me that they would be taking him off everything including the cpap machine. My heart sunk because I knew this would be the last time we would get to see him. I am so thankful that I made it to the Hospital in time to be there with Adah and Sheila when I knew they were going to need me the most. We were in the room with him right by his side as he slipped away to the other side. It wasn't easy to watch him go and it sure will not be the same without him. But I am happy that he is no longer suffering. The man went through more than I would wish on anyone this week. I tried to thank everyone that has offered us their prayers and so many words of encouragement. I am sure that I have left someone out, but I know that you all know I would not do that on purpose. Thank you to all of our family and friends who have stuck right there by our side.

Blessings till I post again.

New Fish again

Yesterday I got home and found the fish RM dead. So I took him back to the pet store. I asked if I could get a koi instead. They guy asked me if I had that fish with koi and I told him yes. He said do you have any others in with them. Yes I said I had two others. He told me to go home and bring them back because they would die as well. It turns out that these fish are tropical fish and koi's will kill them because of the ammonia they put in the water. He could not believe the other two fish were still alive. He replaced them with 3 other Koi's. They are a different type of Koi from the ones we have but he assured me that they would be okay together. We have one fish named goldy (because she is pure gold) and the other two we have not named yet. Nothing has jumped out at us yet. They seem to have adapted well and have found a home under Rosco's foot. Rosco is the Elephant that shoots water out his trunk in the pond. All in all I think they are going to like there new home.

Blessings till I post again.

Extreme Pond Makeover

Yesterday we did an extreme pond makeover. Adah (my mother in law) came over and spent the better part of 3 hours helping me. We moved the water fall and planted some plants and I have to say it looks pretty good. In a few days when the plants take hold and the pond looks like it should I will post a new picture. We also have an addition to the pond. My mom surprised me with 3 new fish. We now have 6 fish outside and still 2 inside. The new fish are named as follows. The Big fish is Bubba. The smaller fish is speedy (more on that in a sec) and the extremely small fish is RM. My nephew RM named him that. Speedy was originally named TIME (???) That is what my other nephew Emmanuel named him. But last night I watched as TIME was zig zagging all over the pond. This fish is FAST!!! so I asked Emmanuel if we could change the name to speedy and he loved the idea. We also planted a tree yesterday. They had earth day at school last week and each kid got a tree to take home to plant. His Dad didn't want to plant the tree in his yard so I agreed to let him plant it here. I let him do it all by himself (I helped a little) I have pictures of that I will post at a later date as well. This weekend was jam packed and I can't wait to go back to work so I can get some rest (HA HA).

Blessings till I post again.

CD Cover Pre-View

This is a mini pre-view of the cd cover of my cd. This of course is just a photo, the graphics have yet to be added. It will probably be something simple like the title of the CD. Of course this is all a work in progress, so the entire cover could change. For those of you who know me, you already know not to read to much into this until the finished product is available. I am likely to change my mind 100 times between now and then.

I did remember to take the tracks to work today, so we are tentatively set to start production in 3 weeks. Keep your fingers crossed that I hit the right notes and make a decent product. So far I am only having problems with one of the tracks. The key is a bit to high for me and I am hoping that Jeff (not Jeff Leach) can change the key for me. If not You are going to hear some off pitch singing on that track or I'll be talking like Micky Mouse after this project is done. :)

Blessings till I post again.

Another CD Update

Tonight I put the tracks in order that they will be on the cd. I have to take the cd to the guy tomorrow. He is going to "Scrub" the music. I don't know exactly what this process is, but He says that it will enhance the music to make it more "professional". I know nothing about this and I am sure he knows everything there is to know about producing a CD. If it were up to me it would be medium quality at best. The actual production will begin in about 3 weeks. This will be the part where I "lend" my vocal talents (if you want to call it that). He will then mix the final production and make me sound as good as he can. So far there are requests for 3 CD's. If you would like to have a copy please email me at rob.baugh@insightbb.com. Please make the subject line "CD Request". This will help me sort those emails and know exactly how many copies I need to get. For those of you who know how I am at reading/responding to my emails you will know that this will help me stay focused and get the job done. I don't have the track listing with me, so I will update you on that at a later post. I hope this CD does turn out okay. So far I think this has been 5 months in the making.. I hope to have the final CD in my possession by the end of may or mid June at the latest.

Blessings till I post again.

CD Update again

Today I finally purchased the music to the songs that I am going to do.
I could not find all of the original songs that I wanted to do. I did find In the presence of Jehovah though. Here is a list of the songs that will be on the final CD.

1. Give It Away
2. In the Garden
3. Then came the morning.
4. In the Presence of Jehovah
5. How Beautiful Heaven must be.

The next step is to get into the studio to cut the tracks. I plan on making time in the next few weeks to practice singing the songs. Once I feel comfortable about them I will schedule time to get into the studio to cut the tracks. Once that step is finished I'll give you an update as to the completion of the project. Email me and let me know if you are interested in getting a copy of the CD. I don't want to make 100 copies only to find out that my mom is the only one who wants one. The number I get will be based on how many people want the CD.

Blessings till I post again.

Earth Quake

You had to know that I would have to post about this.
The talk of the day was the Earth Quake. Either people felt it or they did not. There was no in between. Most people didn't though. Alot of my co-workers were in their cars on the way to work. As for me, I had just turned the key off to my car when my car began to rock back and forth. I first thought someone was rocking my car. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw no one. I looked left and right and still no one. Then I though, hmmm it's the wind. But to my surprise the trees were not swaying. So I rolled down my window to see if I could hear the wind, and nothing. So I though I must be crazy. upon my arrival in the building I was greeted by a co-worker who said "did you feel the Earth Quake?" A small smile appeared on my face as I came to the conclusion that I was not crazy (for this reason alone) and that my car was moving for a reason. It sure has been an eventful day. after all the excitement wore off I came home and started cleaning on the house, doing laundry, going through papers, dishes, mowed the lawn (Sheila helped), cleaned out the pond, put out Roscoe (the elephant that shoots water in the pond), installed the pond lights and got the falls running. Now As I write tonight's blog I am waiting for the dryer to stop so I can get the next load of laundry drying. I also worked in dinner and a work out (somehow).

I'm Beat.

Blessings till I post again.

CD Update

I was sitting here thinking tonight about the CD that I have been planning. I have the final list of songs that I am going to do, but I am having a very difficult time fining the right music for the songs. I might just have to break down and settle. But I really hate to do that. My mother has been begging me to do a cd for a long time now, and if I am going to do this I really want it to be the best that it can be. I don't have the greatest singing voice and I can use all the help that I can get. If anyone knows of any other sources to get christian sound tracks please email me and let me know. One thing that I have thought about doing is recording one of the tracks myself. I have a keyboard that I can hook up to my computer and record a cd of the music, but I was really wanting to go professional as possible for this one. I may still do that, but record the track as a solo piano performance for the cd. Who knows what I will do. I just know that I need to get off my butt and get this thing done.

Blessings till I post again.

More about the Mark Lowry Concert

One tidbit that I left out of my last post was about the squirrels. You surely did not think that I would go a few months without a squirrel conspiracy theory update??? Well if you did you were wrong. We just got out of the car and headed for the doors to the auditorium of the Church. The wind was blowing strong so I decided to go up the sidewalk next to the building. Thinking this would cut down on the wind. Well it did cut down on the wind, but just as I was rounding the corner what jumped out of the bushes but a squirrel. I remember him running towards me and he stopped just short of reaching me. I think he must have thought that I was a tree. And realized at the last moment that trees don't walk. I was startled and jumped towards the building. That could have been the reason the squirrel stopped and ran the other direction. Who knows how far this critter would have gotten if I had not scared the snot out of him. My mind started racing (as it always does) and the first thing I thought was, yep he was hiding in that bush just waiting for his next victim. I laughed out loud and the people behind me probably thought I was laughing at the squirrel. But I was really laughing at my conspiracy theory and how I just added another chapter to that file.

Blessings till I post again.

Mark Lowry, Then and Now

Tonight we went to the Mark Lowry Concert at Graceland Baptist Church. I was able to get a picture with Mark after the concert. I really wanted to do this because about 5 years ago we saw him and Chonda Pierce at Freedom Hall in Louisville. I had my picture done with him then. I thought it would be neat to see a before and after of both pics. So I have put them in this post for you to view. Emmanuel said that it ROCKED!!! He had a blast and he said his side was hurting from all the laughing. I think we all had a great time. I would have enjoyed myself better if I didn't have a head ache, but thats just life. I still had a great time even though I wasn't feel up to par.

Blessings till I post again.

Sibling Rivalry

OK I know the caption does not go with the photo. This picture was taken a few months ago when Emmanuel spent the night with us. I went into our bedroom to see what they were up to and could not resist missing this photo op. Rather they want to admit it or not, these two love each other. AWWWWWWW.

I had a lonely night last night. Sheila left for Indianapolis with a Friend of hers. Her friends son was having surgery today (It went great) so she went along to lend support. Sounds like Sheila saved the day in a few ways. I won't go into that now. But I guess my point is this. Like Emmanuel and RM, I would never admit that I don't like to be alone, but the the truth is I do value some time alone, but not too much time. I did miss Sheila last night and was very happy to see her return home. I laid awake longer than I wanted to last night. I don't know if it was because I was not used to being alone, or if it was the stormy weather. I am leaning towards the weather because it was thundering and raining something awful.

Blessings till I post again.

Cake, New Job and Thunder Over Lousiville

I said in a past post that I would post some pictures I had taken. lets see if i can locate some of them. Starting with the much awaited cake that me and the nephews made. I'll post more photos later.

I have 18 working days left till I start my new position. I can't wait because everything I have heard about my new department is exciting. We can work from home after 6 months in the dept, however we are becoming so stretched for space that they are letting people go home after only 2 months. So I should be able to work from home any where between September of this year or January of next year. Either way it is a nice thought. Even if it does not come to pass, but I am sure that it will.

The hardest thing for me to do is to wait. I got this job back in February, but because of a deptartment wide freeze I had to wait till April 28th to begin. My official last day in my current role is April 25th.

Thunder over Louisville is just around the corner. Like every year before now I plan on spending it in the comfort of my own home. Everyone that knows me already is well aware that I hate crowds and avoid them at all cost. But I do think it would be nice to attend a "Live" thunder one year. I have done things this past few years that I always said I would not do (Like waiting in line for 3 hours to purchase something ie a WII). But who knows what tomorrow will bring.

I said in a past post that I would post some pictures I had taken. lets see if i can locate some of them. Starting with the much awaited cake that me and the nephews made.

Easter Facts

Here are some Easter Facts that I found on the web. I found them quite interesting.

Easter is the second most important candy-eating occasion of the year for Americans, who consumed 7 billion pounds of candy in 2001, according to the National Confectioner's Association.

In 2000, Americans spent nearly $1.9 billion on Easter candy, while Halloween sales were nearly $2 billion;Christmas, an estimated $1.4 billion; and Valentines Day, just over $1 billion.
Ninety million chocolate Easter bunnies are produced each year.
Chocolate bunnies should be eaten ears first, according to 76% of Americans. Five percent said bunnies should be eaten feet first, while 4% favored eating the tail first.
Adults prefer milk chocolate (65%), to dark chocolate (27%).

Millions of Peeps
Each Easter season, Americans buy more than 700 million Marshmallow Peeps, shaped like chicks, as well as Marshmallow Bunnies and Marshmallow Eggs, making them the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy.
As many as 4.2 million Marshmallow Peeps, bunnies, and other shapes can be made each day.

In 1953, it took 27 hours to create a Marshmallow Peep. Today it takes six minutes.
Yellow Peeps are the most popular, followed by pink, lavender, blue, and white.
Jellybeans Could Circle the Globe
Americans consume 16 billion jellybeans at Easter, many of them hidden in baskets. If all the Easter jellybeans were lined end to end, they would circle the globe nearly three times.

Jellybeans did not become an Easter tradition until the 1930s. They were probably first made in America by Boston candy maker William , who ran advertisements urging people to send jellybeans to soldiers fighting in the Civil War.
70% of kids aged 6–11 say they prefer to eat Easter jellybeans one at a time, while 23% report eating several at once. Boys (29%) were more apt to eat a handful than girls (18%).

Children indicate their favorite Easter jellybean flavors are cherry (20%), strawberry (12%), grape (10%), lime (7%), and blueberry (6%).



Blessings till I post again

Happy Easter

Easter is just a few hours away. I love Easter, it's not about the chocolates and colored eggs. But it is a celebration of the greatest even in history. I always found it funny that they show the ten commands at Easter. I mean Easter is about the death, burial and Resurrection of Jesus. Why don't they show that? Don't get me wrong, it is a great movie, but I just find it funny. I always enjoyed Easter growing up, because spring is around the corner. They say we are already into spring, but you would not know that looking outside. It was so cold today and grey and gloomy. My idea of spring is the bright green grass, sunny Sky's and the green coming back into the leafs on the trees. There are some sings of this going on, but I sure would like it better if it were in full bloom. Regardless, I know that I will have a good Easter.

Emmanuel spent the night with us Friday night. And today we went to Mazda in Louisville to get Sheila's Oil changed. It turned into an all day event. We ended up crossing the road and headed for the Oxmoore Mall. As we entered Macy's we spotted a car fire in the entrance to the mall. That just made Emmanuel's day. He was very concerned and questioned every shopper as they entered "Has anyone called 911?" I think he told everyone he knew about this strange event. He was very joyful in the fact that he was a witness to this event because "I never saw a car fire before". He also spotted an escalator and he wanted to ride it so bad because he "Never rode one of those before." I think that he has and his Dad says that he has, but after today he can not say anymore that he has not rode an escalator before. Because it is well documented now.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Easter tomorrow. The best one this year :)

Blessings till I post again.

3rd Times a Charm

Tonight is my 3rd night I came down here to blog and I finally got around to doing it. The other two nights I got distracted by my exercise bike. I have failed at blogging daily, but I am going to try to get back into the swing of things. I have a very good excuse for last night because I did horrible in keeping my calories in tact. I went over by 800 yesterday. We had a taco day at work and I admit that I went overboard. And as always I did what I felt necessary. Yep I came home and spent 2 hours working out. I feel better about myself when I keep it at my 2175 calories. I beat my self up all day yesterday and could not wait to get home to exercise. I had planned on coming home and taking a nap, but it did not happen. I also planned on taking a nap tonight, but I got side tracked by doing laundry, dishes and making dinner (frozen pizza). So maybe that nap will come tomorrow night. (Yeah right).

It seems that we live in a rain forest, because all it has done is rain for the past 2 days. If this keeps up I may have to start on that ark (just kidding of course) and even if I did build an ark we all know that it would sink like the titanic. Which reminds me that the titanic was built by professionals and the ark was built by an amature. So maybe our doctors should just be amatures? Ummm maybe not.

I'll try to keep up with my posts better in the future. I took the advice of a friend who said that I should probably write down what I want to blog about. Well I have been doing that, but as I predicted those notes are still laying on my desk at work. Oh well, Guess I need to try harder huh.

Blessings till I post again.

Carmel Cake and a Snow Fort.

What a great weekend I had. My nephews spent the majority of it with us. Emmanuel spent the night Saturday night. RM said he was going to but changed his mind. But Saturday was packed with Emmanuel playing games non stop. At one point I made him turn them off so we could bake a cake. I thought it might be better for him to have some interaction with something other than a television. I had to improvise with the frosting. We did not have any prepared frosting so I got out a cook book and let Emmanuel pick a recipe that we could make with the limited ingredients that we had. We made a white cake with Carmel frosting. The cake was a box mix, but the frosting was home made. I have to admit it was very good. Next time I am in the mood for a home made cake it will have to be another Carmel cake. mmmmmmmm mmmmmm good.

With the time change Emmanuel was up at 12:40 new time, but really it was still 11:40. I finally told him it was time to go to bed. I think he would have stayed up all night if I had let him. He really enjoys spending time with us. I'm not sure why we are so special. But he likes it over here so who am I to judge. We also made time to go out to make a snow fort in the yard. I have pictures of the fort and the cake that I will post at a later time. I just have to get the pictures off the camera and have not got around to doing that yet.

Blessings till I Post again

Shopping cart's and "snow"

I went to Krogers this evening because we needed to get a few things to "survive" the next few days if we get snowed in. I think that the grocery store some how is directly involved with the weaterman to scare us to run out and buy groceries. Needless to say the store was packed. I went in the front and saw a lady and her daughter. (so I thought). anyway there were only 2 carts left. The carts were stuck together and they were both trying their hands at getting them apart. I was about to offer my services when the older lady got the carts apart. Both Ladies claimed the two remaining carts. It would have been nice if they would have told me that they both needed the carts. That would have saved me 5 mins of waiting and watching them struggle to get them apart. oh well, thats life. My search for a cart would thus continue. I headed back out to the parking lot and found a cart without an owner and finally my grocery store shopping could begin. I think people get stupid when the store reaches capacity. I passed the 2 shopping cart ladies several times and really wanted to say something, but I kept my cool. I headed to the check out lanes which were to my surprise fully operational. I think there were only 2 lanes that did not have a cashier. But Me and my 7 items would have to wait in a line that stretched clear across the store. I finally checked out and headed back to a home that was not full to capacity and I was fine with that. My guess is that the 5 - 12 inches that we are to have tomorrow will end up being a dusting. Time will tell.

Blessings till I post again.

R.I.P Fred

This afternoon I went outside to clean out the pond. I've been trying to keep it clean any chance I get because we are still getting a lot of leafs in it right now. After getting all the leafs out I noticed Fred was missing. I searched the entire pond several times and could not find him. I looked around the pond thinking he may have leaped out of the water during the night. This happend once before to Ethel. After Ethel jumped out I built up the rock walls around the pond to make sure this did not happen again. But my search still came up without finding Fred. I though to myself, did I scoop him out by mistake? So I searched the pile of leafs that I had scooped out. Still no Fred. I called Sheila at work to tell her that we were Fredless. She said maybe he was hiding. But I assured her that if he was hiding he was doing it well because I went through the pond several times. He is a Big fish and there are not many hiding spots for him. I finally gave up the search and figured that he either was taken by a neighborhood kid or an animal got him in the night. I just saw him yesterday so I know that he has not been MIA for very long. I ended up leaving the "search for Fred" and came in to play some wii and then ride my bike. I then did some laundry and Sheila finally came home from work. She to searched for Fred and came up with nothing. Later she went to babysit for a friend of ours. While she was gone I decided that I needed to resume the Fred search. Before doing this I headed for the bathroom. I looked out the window and noticed something by a tree. At first glance I thought it was a mangled bird. HMMM I thought, looks like a bird got into a fight with a cat and lost. I was not wearing my glasses. So I picked up my glasses and headed out to further investigate. The search for Fred was finally over. The "Mangled Bird" that I had saw in the window tured out to be Fred. A headless Fred in fact. So my original theory of the neighborhood kid stealing Fred was now busted. My best guess is that we may have had a racoon or a cat do some fishing late last night. He must have not been to hungry because he sure didn't take much of Fred. Maybe Fred didn't taste as good as he thought. Or maybe this animal is on a strick 1500 calorie diet like I had been for almost 2 years. Who Knows! The long and the short of it is that we are down to 3 fish now. Our Flintstone crew is now without a leader. For those of you who do not know the names of our fish were all based on the Flintstones. How that came to pass was when Ethel passed away my mother got me 3 new fish and my nephew asked me what the name of the survivor fish was. I told him Fred and he then decided that the new fish would be Barny, Betty and Wilma. That was a different spin on Fred and Ethel who got their names from I Love Lucy.
I told my nephew about the missing Fred earlier today and I have not told him the discovery I made. I think I will keep that to myself with him. He is a very sensative child and I don't think it would be best for me to tell him of my discovery. When I told him he was sad. He thought an animal might have got him. He thinks it is a cat and does not believe that Racoons are in "these parts" as he put it. I told him I spotted a Racoon at the end of the summer. So he decided that Racoons could "Survive" in "These Parts" after all. Funny how kids minds work. So He told me that he will just have to replace Fred for me. He said "I have a hundred dollars, I think" That should be more than enough to replace Fred. Well I thought that Fred was priceless, but as it turns out less than a hundred dollars is more than enough for a Fish called Fred.

Blessings till I post again.

random thoughs

I just looked outside and it is snowing. I think they said a dusting but no accumulation. Looks like accumulation out there to me, but I'm not a weather man. I don't think I have what it takes to be a weatherman. The weather never interested me much. My brother on the other hand could be one. Growing up I remember many times watching he check out the weather. For some reason it has always been something that interested him. Now it might be because he likes to fish, and maybe he checks it out to see if the weather is right for fishing. Just a guess on my part and I could totally be wrong on that one. But it would not be the first time I was ever wrong. I've gotten used to being wrong since it's something that I do so well. I recall hearing someone say what ever you do, do it well. Getting things wrong seems to be something I do very well. And I do excel in that I must admit. I'm not proud of the fact that I get things wrong. Just used to it. But this is the way that God made me and I know that he is proud of me so I guess it's high time that I start accepting that and start being proud of myself. That is one thing that is hard. I'm guessing that I am not the only one who has this struggle. I'm sure that many, well most people don't want to accept the way that they are. I know that February is coming to a close and maybe this is not the best time to start a "new years" resolution. But perhaps I need to accept the way that I am and be happy for just being alive. I have so many things to be thankful for, My beautiful wife, A warm place to sleep at night, A good job, wonderful friends. And I owe all of this to God. Without him I could have none of these things. He's proud of me. I mean I am his kid. I'm sure there are plenty of times he could just take off his belt and wear me out for being bad. But he doesn't. He just loves me. It's a very hard concept to understand. I mean there are people in my life that it takes all I have to love them. But I have to. I can't wait till we get to heaven so we can "understand it better by and by" (as the song goes). It's gonna be great. There are a lot of things in this life that I just do not understand. I'm sure that when we do get over there he will let us in on what was going on. Life is so hard to understand some times. And yet when we communicate with each other we can sometimes find out that things we are going through some how mirrors what our friends, family or co-workers are going through. I refuse to belief that this is a coincidence. I know that God puts people in our life to share and help us get through the tough stuff. This is boot camp people. The best is yet to come.

Blessings till I post again.

A Nice Weekend

We went to see Chonda Pierce at Graceland Baptist Church on Saturday. She was Hilarius. If you have never had the chance to see her you should. Go to you tube and type in her name and some of her videos will come up. She is a very funny comedian. My Dad went to see her with us. It was a last min thing so he was going to buy a ticket at the door. He got lucky because a man was there who had to many tickets (I'm confused about that myself) and he asked Dad if he was buying tickets. Dad said yes and the man handed him a ticket and said enjoy. He didn't want any money. He was simply giving his tickets away. When we got home Emmanuel my nephew had already decided that he was going to spend the night with us. He finally won and did spend the night. We played wii until midnight. He didn't want to go to bed, but I finally won that fight. It wasn't really a fight. He is a very good kid and knows when I mean business. He ended up going to church with us this morning. Some how my other nephew (RM) snookered his way into going as well. They both had a good time. RM was singing with us (the wrong words). There was a song we sand that had a verse that said My blessed God. Well he was singing Birthday cake instead of my blessed God. Another song we sang this morning is one of my favorites. "Everybody will be happy over there" After we sang that song Emmanuel turned to me and said. Hey Uncle Rob. You have that song on a CD don't you. He does not miss a thing. We ended up going to McDonald's after church and the boys had their happy meals. I spent the majority of the time in the bathroom having fellowship with the toilet. But other than that it has been a very good weekend.

Blessings till I post again.

Wii Part Two.

In case you are wondering how my wii adventure went this morning. This is how it unfolded.

My mother said that I should try to be there by 7:00 because the line would start forming early. Man was she right. I got there at 5 mins till 7 and there were already 3 people in line. I hurried to the end of the line and within 5 mins there were about 15 more cars in the parking lot. I said in the cold on the sidewalk for two hours. FREEZING MY BUNS OFF. but I was determined to get a wii. As I looked down the line and saw the 20 or more people behind me I was hoping that they would not come out and do a lottery or something crazy like that. But at 9:00 on the nose they send a co worker out with tickets in hand. A guy near the end of the line yelled out. "give us some good news. How many?" His reply 13. 13 I thought, Gee the odds are pretty good unless they do a drawing. He handed a ticket to the first guy in line, then the next. Then he said, What I am handing out our vouchers. If you get a voucher you get a wii. I got my voucher. #4 was mine. Yes.... I was so happy because I had been thinking about giving up and heading for home. I was a good 10 mins from making that trip back to the car. He handed out the remainder of the vouchers and headed back inside. The sidewalk where I had been sitting with my umbrella in hand had now become to wet to sit down. Well looks like I have to stand up for an hour now (I thought). at 9:18 he came back out and said if you have a voucher you can come into the lobby and wait out of the rain. Some people had been standing in the rain for more than an hour. They did not think to bring an umbrella like me. We waited inside and I thought I would have to wait till 10:00 when they opened to go get my wii. at 9:40 they came out and said we need ticket holders 1 - 4 to come in now. The reason they brought us in first was because they shipped them 13 wiis and only about 8 or 9 of the extra controllers. (the wii comes with one) So I thought about it and I went ahead and purchased the extra controller. I asked if they were always available. The guy said they were supposed to be, but they are scarse like the wii. So I bought it. I did have a great time playing it this morning and I can't wait till that exercise program comes out. And for those who are wondering Sheila was feeling much better this morning. She is not 100% yet, but she is getting there.

Blessings till I post again.

A Birthday to Remember

Wow, What an eventful day.

I slept in today. I did not get up until 6am. Yes Thats still early to some, but not for me. I got in a few miles on my bike and then Sheila finally got up around 7ish. We talked a bit and I asked if she wanted to go to Waffle House. So we did just that. Do you know that have a lighter version waffle now? Of course when I found that out I had to have one. Sheila said she could tell it was lighter because it tasted lighter. I could not tell the difference. But I really enjoyed it. I ate 1 waffle and a piece of bacon. After we finished up at waffle house we went to best buy to see if they had any wii's in stock. The sales rep said they didn't, and if we wanted one that we would have to stand in line before the store opens because they are still that hot of an item. We tried several stores and got the same story. We found out that Toys R Us will be getting a shipment in the morning. The girl also told me to get there before the store opens. So I am going to head out at 7:00 in the morning to see if there is a line. If not I'll come back home and go back around 9:00. The store opens at 10:00 so who knows what will happen. My guess is that I will have an intersting blog tomorrow night. We finally got my birthday cookie and headed for home. My parents, brother and nephews came over about 2:30 and they gave me my gifts. I really liked the cards I got. I'll share those in another future post. We decided we were getting hungry and we should go eat. So I suggested Kansi. I can never get Sheila to go there and I thought since today is my Birthday I might have a chance. We did end up at Kansi and everyone really enjoyed it. Sheila not so much. She liked the food, but about an hour or so before we left she started feeling bad. She felt a little better after she ate, but before we got to the car she felt horrible. We barly made it home before she started getting sick. And that is how she spent the rest of this night. Married to the bathroom. I feel so bad for her. All I can do is take care of her and rub her back and tell her I'm sorry. I'm probably getting on her nerves. But I do care and I hope she knows that. She keeps apologizing for messing up my birthday. Messing up my birthday? She's the one getting sick, I'd say her day is messed up, not mine. But I know she wanted my day to be memorable. Well it was. Mission accomplished.

Blessings till I post again.

Happy Valentines Day

Well Happy Valentines day everyone. I hope you had a great one.
Sheila and I started out going to Outback Steak House, but a 2 1/2 - 3 hour wait was out of the question. We ended up eating at Franks Steak House. I had a salad, a side of broccoli and about 1/4 of my steak. I think this counts as the 5th steak that I have eaten in over a year. But it was good. After that Sheila and I headed over to the green tree mall and ordered a cookie cake for my Birthday. I told her that I did not want a cake and all I wanted was a cookie. She thought I meant one of those BIG cookies. But Actually I just wanted 1 single cookie. Well after thinking about it I decided to go with the BIG cookie. I figured that everyone else might want some too. So that was our Valentines Day. It was a good one, unlike 3 years ago. For those of you who might remember that on this Day 3 years ago we lost our dog BJ. I'll never forget that day. It has become etched in my mind. It's funny how certain things burn into your mind and you can recall almost every event at a moments notice. Like the day Sheila and I got married. That is a good memory that is etch in my mind. I had not planned on sharing that day, but now that I bring it up why not. I remember that my brother had spent the night with me the night before. I think everyone was afraid that I would not get up on time and make it to the church. Of course I may have given pleanty of good reasons in the past for them to be cautious. I remember heading to the florist early to get a single rose for each of our mothers. I also remember thinking several times that moring that I need to remember to shave. But as much as I tried to remind myself I forgot. I remember watching Sheila walk down that aisle and thinking to myself that I was the luckiest man alive. I'm sure most grooms think that on their wedding day. But I have to say that I got one wonderful woman (not wonder woman). She has proved to me time and time again that her love for me is pure. No matter what happens to us we end up falling in love that much more at the end of the day. I hope that never changes. She is and always shall be my bride. I thank God for her.

Blessings till I post again.

Another Rob Moment

I had yet another "Rob Moment" today.
I came home from work and did my work out and talked to Sheila on the phone. The same discussion we have most days. "what do you want to do for supper" we decided on me fixing a frozen meal for supper. I got off the phone and headed down stairs to do another work out and after that planned on popping the dinner in the oven. After I got the dinner in the oven I decided to kick back and watch a little TV. No more did I sit down did the door bell ring. To my surprise it was my dad. It seems as though Sheila had called him to come over and tell me to hang up the phone. I must have just sat the phone down after talking to her. When you finish talking on the phone there is an "end" button to push. Sheila had been trying to reach me for about 30 mins or longer. The reason she was trying to get a hold of me was that the lady who cuts my hair had a cancellation and wanted me to come in an hour sooner. Thanks to Sheila's quick thinking I was able to get in and get my hair cut tonight. My forgetfullness of hanging up the phone when finished would not be so bad, but this is not the first time that I have done this. I guess I need to learn how to use the phone all over again. Either that or we just need to get less complicated phones.

Blessings till I post again.

Precious Memories... How they linger.

Most of you might want to skip this post. You will find that I am reflecting on a lot of memories. So if this is not the kind of thing you like to read then its not for you.

After writing last nights post I laid in bed awake for hours thinking of my Grandmother. So many memories popped into my mind. Vivid images of events special and not special flooded my memory like it was yesterday. Like the time I ran to the Christmas tree to see if I could find our name on a package. The Santa and eight tiny reingdeer that I would pick up and pretend that it was flying through the house. The Time I stood next to grandma and watched her roll out dough for the fried apple pies she was about to make. Memory after memory came to mind. I remember the time her and Grandpa came to visit on the first day we moved into our new house in Riverside Subdivision. I had a trampoline and I was bouncing on it on the front steps as they pulled in the drive. I ran to great them as any child would when they see their Grandparents pull up. I wonder if when we get to heaven if we will have the oppratunity to view past expierences in high defenition. How wonderful it would be to stroll down memory lane in living color. I would love to go back and see Noah loading the animals on the ark. Or David shooting the stones to the giant with his sling. Witness the birth of Christ. Even if we can't do that it will be wonderful to be home with all of our loved ones. After I meet Jesus the next person I want to meet is my Grandma and thank her for all of the lovely memories that she left me. It's sad to think of all of the loved ones who have gone on before us. Some of them are faded memories. I pray that I leave lots of cherished memories behind when I go home. I don't want to be a faded memory. My desire is that I have touched someone in a special way. I don't want to be forgotten 2 hours after that lid is closed and the crowd has gone back to their busy everyday lifes. My prayer is that those of you who read these blogs also don't become a faded memory. I may not remember all of your names all the time, but the people I will not forget. Thank God for great friends and loved ones.

Blessings till I post again.

Certs

I found myself strolling down memory lane again today. Sometimes it might be something we see, something some one says or does. But todays stroll was triggered by texture. Yes that is right a simple texture caused my mind to go back to earlier days. It happend when a friend gave me a mint. For those of you who do not know me I do not like mints. But this wasn't a normal peppermint (the kind I hate) It was a mint that reminded me of a Certs. I'm sure they still make certs, but I have never purchased a pack of certs in my life. By now you are probably wondering the connection between my thoughts and certs. It's quite simple. My Grandmother always had a pack of certs on her. The only time I ever had a cert was if my Grandma offered me one. Or if I was looking for gum. I don't know that she ever had gum when I asked but she would offer me a cert. Now like most kids any kind of hard candy (or mints) would have a life span of about 10 seconds before you started chomping it up. But for some reason I would saver the cert and never chew it up. I will never be able to think of any other thing than my Grandma when someone speaks of a cert or offers me one. To be honest I don't think anyone other than my Grandma ever offered me one. I may have to look in the gum aisle next time I am in Krogers to see if I can find me a pack of certs. I think it's time I bought my own certs. And I'll be thinking of that dear sweet woman I loved so much the second I pop one in my mouth.

Blessings till I post again.

Baby Shower

Tonight we went to a baby shower at church. I went with Sheila because I didn't see the need to drive seperatly. I hung out in the lobby while the shower was going on. I got to feed our friends baby. I think he will be turning a year old soon. I also got to hold the baby that the shower was for. After church Sheila and I went to Cheddars and our friends that the shower was for joined us. I really enjoyed holding the baby. I just love that new baby smell. Two things that always smell great to me are new baby smells and new car smells. Why don't car washes offer new baby smell? They offer new car, which never smells like new car (to me that is). I think car washes are missing a great marketing idea here. Maybe I should open a car wash and feature the new baby smell. just a thought.

I'm pretty disappointed in myself. My eating habbits were way off schedule today. I started off the day with a piece of toast at 10:00. Then we had a subway sandwich (mine was a wrap) that was at 12:45. Then we didn't have dinner until 7:30ish. Which totally broke my not eating past 7:00 rule. But I was starved. I actually had a steak tonight. I think that may have been the third steak I have eaten in a year. Well tomorrow is another day and I am going to have to get strick on myself. People think I am to strick, but I know that I have to be. I am a person who falls into routines way to easily so if I let myself go I know what will end up happening to me. So I sure do not want to go down that road. I have worked way to hard to get where I am and I don't want to go back to a size 48 again.

Blessings till I post again.

Happy Ground Hogs Day

So I hear the ground hog saw his shadow. more winter!!! YUCK. I am so sick of winter. I used to look forward to winter, but now that I stay cold all the time I hate it. It would not be so bad if I didn't have to leave the house.

I was glad to see it nice today. I was still cold, but I got a chance to get outside and pick up all the limbs that have fallen because of the big winds we had a few days ago. I also had a chance to clean the leafs out of the pond. It was nice to see the fish still swimming around and enjoying life. I often wonder what goes on in their minds. One day it's all nice and BAMB all covered in ICE. I'm glad I am not a fish. What a boring life they lead. Eat, Swim, Eat, Swim, Eat, Swim. It would be horrible to be a fish with ADHD.

So I guess it's superbowl Sunday tomorrow. Unlike most americans I will not be watching the super bowl. I have never got into sports. I don't even know who is playing. I don't know anything about the sport. How many innings are in a foot ball game, how many players are on a team or even how the sport is played. My brother on the other hand knows everything there is to know about football. He loves football and Nascar. I'm surprised he didn't name his kids Football and Nascar. It would have been appropriate. Heck, my nephew knows alot about football as well. He sure knows more than I do, thats for sure.

I hope your team wins tomorrow, whoever you want to win.

Blessings till I post again.

As Seen on TV

We all see those "as seen on TV" products. Some of them work and most do not. I do find myself being sucked into those commercials and just wonder how I ever lived without those products. We have a shelf full of those products that we just could not live without. Most of them have never been used for the first time. It's hard to believe that we just keep getting taken time and time again. I am proud to say that we have not been "taken" for a long time. I do however like some of the items that we have purchased over the years. One being the moving men. It is the frisbee with padding that you put under furniture to move them with ease. I have to admit that it does make moving your furniture much easier. Now if I could just figure out how to use that juicer or potato pealer to move furniture I would be in business.

So far we do not have to work this weekend. I really hope that it stays that way. If we do not have to work I plan on sleeping in on Saturday. For those of you who truly know me, it means I'll get up at 6am and not 5am. I'm not sure why I still do this after all these years, but my internal clock has never figured out how to figure in a weekend or a day off. No matter what time I end up getting up I'm sure I'll find some adventure to get into. My last weekend off I ened up painting the hallway. I'm sure I'll have something interesting to report this weekend :)

Blessing till I post again.

Vacation and CD update

I thought of a few things that I wanted to blog about tonight, but like most times I have forgot what they were.

I did have some nice thoughts today while I was at Kroger's this evening. The lady who checked me out was talking about vacations and how many places she has been and how beautiful they all were. I started thinking about the "final" vacation. You know when we finally get home to our great reward. Have you ever thought about what Heaven will be like? I heard someone say to imagine Heaven as pretty as you can and I can promise you that it will be even better than that. WOW. I really enjoy living here on earth and I don't want anyone to think that I want to die right now, but I do get excited to think about living in Heaven. I like to think of me laying next to a crystal river feeling a cool breeze hitting my face and admiring the flowers that are colors that we have never seen. And I'll be able to tell what colors are what without someone having to tell me what they are. Yes for those who don't know I am color blind, but it's not extreme. But thank God I married a woman who is not color blind.

I have not forgot about the CD project that I will be doing soon. I have not purchased the tracks for the CD yet. I have found a few that I like and I'm still deciding on what songs I want to do. I'm trying to stay away from all the standard hymns. I love the old hymns but I want to try to stick with some "newer" favorites of mine and my family. I know for sure that I will be doing Surely the presence of the lord is in this place. I will do that one because my wife really likes that song. (so do I).

Blessings till I post again.

The overtime blues

Just when I thought the over time was finished.... I'm working 8 hours Saturday and 6 Hours Sunday. Hopefully this will be the last of it. But in our line of business who knows.

Not really much going on tonight. I think of things throughout the day that I want to blog about. By the time I finally sit down to blog I forget what it is that I wanted to blog about.

This will be my shortest post yet.

Blessings till I post again.

Sleep Over

Tonight my nephew is spending the night. It has been an eventful day. We started out with both of the nephews, but RM is still at that age that he says he wants to spend the night but he never does. As soon as Sheila got home from work we picked up both of them and headed out to Cheddars. I was smart enough to suggest that they both bring their Nintendo DS. It came in handy because we had a 45 min way. It ended up being 25 mins but 2 young boys waiting that long in a crowded restaurant would spell disaster. After that we headed over to Wal-Mart. They both wanted everything they saw. Well more RM than Emmanuel. I took them over to look at the fish while Aunt Sheila was getting some of the personal items we needed. They both wanted to buy a fish. I told them it would be fine if we had somewhere to stick them. It's to cold in my opinion to stick them out in the pond since they have been used to the warm water. I feel that would be better on the fish if we did that in the spring. Emmanuel pointed out that we could stick them in the aquarium downstairs, but I still declined. We saw some neat frogs that were about half the size of a penny (if not smaller) That would have been fine, but with the way things go with my luck I can only see disaster all over that. We ended up the night with a good old fashion pillow fight. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, Me or Emmanuel. I'll admit this was my first pillow fight. I had a ton of fun. Of course there are a lot of things that happened this evening that I am leaving out, however I'm just giving you the highlights of the evening.

My day before the boys was very eventful as well. I got up at 5:00 this morning. Sheila was out the door around 7:00 (I think) and I decided that I had to much energy to just go back to bed, So I got out the paint brush and decided to tackle the hallway. We had a new thermostat put in about 3 or 4 months ago which left a very big and noticeable hole below the thermostat. I had to patch the hole and it has needed painting every since. I let the wall dry about an hour before I put the thermostat back on the wall. About 3 hours later I though it was getting very cold so I looked and it was 63 degrees inside. The heater wasn't working. So I called Sheila's Cousin who installed the new thermostat (He lives about an hour away) the short story is that I took pictures of the inside of the heater and emailed them to him. He viewed the pictures and told me what to do over the phone. He had me do everything he would do if he were here. We were able to temporarily fix the problem and he will come out on Monday to give us the permanent fix then. I am just shocked that I was able to fix the furnace myself (of course with a lot of help from Ron). What a day it has been. And how I worked in over 2 hours of exercise today is a miracle in itself.

Blessings till I post again.

My best post YET!!!

I have been waiting a long time to make this post. But today it became official. I have finally hit my all time goal. I have lost all of the weight that I can loose (according to my doctor that is) I weight in this morning and I have officially lost 122 lbs. I still can not believe it. This has taken me 22 months to accomplish and I will admit that I never thought I would even loose 10 lbs. The question that I get asked the most is "how did you do it" I find it funny to be honest that people ask that question. It's not like it's a magic trick or something. It all boils down to eating right and EXERCISE. that is the key and I think if you ask any professional they will tell you the same. When I decided to really buckle down and take the weight off I did tons of research. And I looked for the common thread in all weight loss success. And that common thread was simply exercise and diet. I have always said and always will say that DIETS DO NOT WORK!!!. Yes it is true that a diet will make you loose weight, but what happens when that diet ends?? Yep you gain all that weight back and then some. My biggest pet peeve is when people say what kind of a diet are you on. They are always surprised when I say that I am not on a diet. I never will be on a diet. I have made a life choice to eat better and exercise. Diets are just fads. I looked up the definition of the word fad and this is what Wikipedia had to say: A fad is a fashion that becomes popular in a culture relatively quickly but loses popularity dramatically. In lamens terms a fad is something that is popular but eventually goes away. So if any of you want to loose weight the best advice that I can give to you is this. Start moving and simply watch what you eat. You don't have to stay away from candy, your favorite foods or anything dramatic. Portion size is the key. Many people think that what you put on your plate is what you have to eat. That's not the case. I have fallen victim to this to many times. that's how I reached almost 300 lbs. If you read what a serving is of something and follow it you might think, well that's not enough food. but over time your stomach will shrink and you will become full before you finish that serving. I never thought an apple would fill me up, but these days it does. There was a point in my life where I could eat an entire pizza to myself and say what's for dessert? Those days are gone and I pray that I never get to that point again. God has richly blessed me with determination and I know that with his help I will not loose that determination. Sorry that you all had to read about my weight loss ramblings again. I will try to limit myself in the future, but you have to realize that me reaching this goal was a huge deal to me. I proved to myself that if you want something and work hard you can do anything that you set your mind to. And one last note... for all of you who have been worried that I will become "anorexic" let me tell you this. I WILL NOT!!! I have reached my goal and I will begin my program to maintain my current weight. I'm sure there will be days that I will loose a few or gain a few but my plan is to stay where I am at. I feel great now and I wouldn't trade it for anything. The best news is that when I do die (don't get mad for me saying that, everyone will die someday) My paul bearers will not throw out their back carrying me to my final resting place.

Blessings till I post again.

Trading Spaces and recruiting squirrels

I saw a commercial tonight for Trading Spaces. I am sure you have all seen this program if not at least once. I used to watch it all the time. About 2 years ago they decided they no longer needed a host and now the designers run the show. For some reason I quit watching. Tonight I saw that they are bringing back the original host Paige Davis. I think I will start watching again. I think the show lost something when she left. There is another show that I have become attached to lately. It's called Little people big world. If you have not seen this show it is about a dwarf or little people family. They show the struggles of day to day living in our "big" world. The dad is amazing and to be honest the whole family is amazing. If I am flipping channels and happen across this program I will end up watching it to the end.

Today I noticed something odd. I looked out the window when I got home just like I do every other day. I do this to see what the squirrels are up to. I had to look twice. There where 4 squirrels out there. I guess they are recruiting now. Who knows. I just found it odd that ever day there are 3 squirrels out there and now there are 4. I think they have been telling all their squirrel friends that we fed them waffles last Sunday. Sounds crazy, but we made waffles and had the batter left over. So we made them some pecan waffles. I took some video of the surveillance officer eating on the bench. I will post this video in the blog when I figure out how to do that.

Blessings till I post again.

The wonderful world of BORED!!!

This week has been so boring for me. I have been off work all week with a terrible sinus infection. It's the kind that makes your head pound. I cold not sleep, and forget about laying down in bed. When I laid down my head hurt that much more. I only found comfort in sitting up in the recliner. I have always joked about wanting to be a stay at home husband, but after this week I think I would have to think twice. It was kinda nice the first day, but by day two I was ready to climb the walls. I watched way to much TV. and let me say that when you are bored you will watch anything. I watched a TV show on how they make erasers. For those of you running to your VCR to set up a recording DON'T BOTHER. Go watch paint dry, it's about the same concept. At one point me and the cat were watching out the kitchen window at the fish swimming in the pond. Man I'm glad I'm not a fish. They have to be bored out of their minds. What would be terrible would be a fish with ADHD. Think about that. I guess watching paint dry would be a step up from that.

I am going back to work tomorrow and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't wait.
I went to the doctor yesterday and I got some treatments for my nose. It's pretty gross and I'll spare the details, but I will say that it is helping. I feel about 60% better and I'm expecting to feel much better in the morning. Especially since I am able to sleep now. Well I wish I would have had a more interesting post tonight, but you get what you get. At least I didn't talk about the squirrels. Dang it, almost made it one post without mentioning them.

Blessings till I post again.

Waffles, Squirrels and Blackberry update

Today went by way to fast. This has been my one day off since New Years day and Christmas day. We are working 10 hours Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 12 hours Thursday and Friday we SHOULD be back to our normal schedule.

Sheila and I made waffles this morning. Sheila likes pecans on her waffles so I made some that way for her. I don't like pecans so I had mine plain. We made some extra waffles for the squirrels. I put pecans in them as well. The waffle had barley hit the ground when the surveillance officer spotted it and headed for it. He picked it up and sat on top of the bench next to our pond. I took a picture of it and then realized that my camcorder was charged up. So I pulled out the old camcorder and took some video of him eating. I think I can add video to the website, so as soon as I find time to transfer the footage to my computer and edit it down it I'll post it on my blog.

OK enough about those squirrels. I went to AT&T today and they finally got in the case to my new blackberry. So now I feel better because I hate keeping it in my pocket. I'm starting to get the hang of this new phone and I'm so glad. I'm still going to read my book (someday) and learn all that this phone can do. Maybe after the overtime is over I'll get around to it.

I still have 1 more lb to go to my goal. That last pound is going to really make me work for it. But I'm sure that I'll be able to loose it.

Blessings till I post again.