Hit and Run.

Well, Life sure has a funny way of going about things. They usually say that bad things happen in threes, so I should have been expecting this...

1. Last Sunday, me and the fam get ready to go to church. We get out to the car and lo and behold we got egged the night before. Not a big deal in its own right, but i had left the windows down since it was nice on Saturday so the inside of the car is covered in a six eg omelette. We had to put soem towels on the seats s owe could even get to chuech, then it took us four hours to clean the inside of the car on sunday afternoon.

2. As we aregetting rady for bed on Sunday night, I go downstairs to check on a load of laundry we started earlier. Lo and behold our basement is now a wading pool for the kids! There is literally an inch of water on the floor. We trace the leal to an underground sprinkler line and get it shut off and stay up unti lthe wee hours of the morning making friends with a shop vac and a mop.

Just when you think it's safe to go about your normal life again, we made the mistake of saying, "What else could go wrong?". I strongly advise you to NEVER ASK THIS QUESTION!!!!.   Which brings me to ....

3. Wednesday night we put the kids to bed and my wife and I are on the couch enjoying an episode of NCIS that we Tivoed earlier. We are atartled by a large crash outside the house and we jump up and run outside (barefoot). A F150 rearended my Mustang which rearended my wifes Jeep and both cars are about 15 feet ahead of where I had left them, and the Mustang is now in my front lawn. As the truck backs up off the rear of my car, I'm standing there waiting for the driver to get out of the car. And  he   drives    off!!!  As he starts to pull away my wife is calling 911 and I'm running down the street pounding on the side of this truck (barefoot) yelling obscenities at the driver. Wel, the truck is gone, the cops show up and fill out a report, and so far they haven't caught the guy.

We have full coverage on my wifes Jeep so it's in the shop getting fixed now.  The Mustang only has liability since it's an '88. So as you can see, unless they catch the guy responsible, I'm S.O.L.

Posted by jtgjr007 @ 11:59 am EDT | Permalink | 6 Comments

That's the last straw!

Well, not really, but things are begining to test my patience. My wife left this morning to go to Mexico for a week. She is taking 30 high-school kids on a mission trip to Chihuahua Mexico to do some work at an oprphanage. This is the 3rd year she has gone on this trip and she really enjoys going, but it means that me and the boys are all on our own for 10 days; between soccer and work and school I'll be pretty busy. I was kind of looking forward to getting some extra game time in this week, but...wait for it... the XBOX decided to take a trip down the crapper. It won't read any disc I put in. I blew some Dust Off through it, same thing. I took it apart and cleaned the lens with e Q tip and....nothing, it won't even read a brand new disc. I think it's toast. I was planning on getting as 360 soon, and with the announcementof the Elite this is all the incentive I need. Now i just have to wait a month or so until I can get my hands on one.

Posted by jtgjr007 @ 9:18 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

The ongoing saga...

Well, I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. Our family had a good time even though we had t ocancel our trip to se my mom because of the blizard that hit the midwest last week. The kids were dissappointed that they didn't get to see grandma for Christmas but we'll take a trip sometime next month.

I'm still getiing used to my new job, working at Target isn't what I thought I'd be doing at the age of 35, but in all honesty, I haven't slept better in years. I never knew how much stress my old job was causing. The money isn't what it used to be, but I actually like going to work now! On a related note, I got promoted (not hard to do when most of my co-workers are high school and college age flunkies)! Starting monday I'm going to be in charge of the Electronics and Entertainment (music movies and books) and most importantly video games! I'm looking forward to it, and the normal schedule that will accompany the new position. No more going to work at 4:00 am, which means that I can stay up past 8:00 now and hopefully get some Halo time in. I hope my felow geezers don't have a heart attavk when I actually show up on line!

Posted by jtgjr007 @ 5:12 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Not all bad.

Well, alot of interesting things have been happening in my life recently. Most notably was the loss of my job and having to find someplace else to work rather suddenly. So, I've been at my new job at Target for about a month now, and it's not actually that bad. Sure, I don't make near the amount of money I used to, but the bills are still getiing paid, so it's all good. Ienjoy the people I work with, and the job is actually fun. Is that what happens over time? The more you make in a job, the less fun it is?  Several people (friends and family alike) have commented on how much happier I seem since I've switched jobs. I guess Iv'e noticed it too.  I have more time to spend with my kids since I'm home in the afternoons to pick them up from school and I really enjoy having "play" time with them instead of the usual eat dinner go to bed routine that my other job afforded me. What does the future hold? I don't know, but i've got a few ideas and it definately helped open my eyes to some new possibilities now that I'm not locked into any particular job just for the money.

 

Sometimes, the most profound lessons can be learned from kids. The other evening as we sat down for dinner, my 6 year old wanted to say the blessing. It went something along the lines of, "...thank you God for my Mom, Dad and little brother. Thanks for the food, thank you for the XBOX and Lego Star Wars and thanks for all our needs. Amen". I know that he meant to say "thanks for meeting all of our needs", but it got me thinking. Am I thankful for my needs? If I didn't need anything then I wouldn't have  to rely on God for providing for me. If life was always a field of daisys, then would I ever be thankful for what I had? Do the tough times in life make me thankful for God's grace and provision, or do they make me resentful?

The book of James tells us, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." At first glance this advice seems ridiculous, be happy when things go bad? But in the long run, that's what we need to do because it is a chance for us to rely on God to provide for us, and it;s a chance for us to becoem mature and complete. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be immature and incomplete.

Thanks God, for all my needs.

 

Posted by jtgjr007 @ 11:54 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

Battle of the Cliches'.

For my current situation, many cliches can be used fairly accurately. "What comes around goes around."  "A roling stone gathers no moss." "What goes up must come down." "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." ""Why ask why?"

Let me explain a little. About two years ago my wife got a dream job offer. We were living in my hometown, just bought a house 2 years prior and I had a job that I loved.  I worked at a blood bank in charge of the Hospital Services department. I was good at the ajob and it gave me a sense of satisfaction knowing that I was helping to provide a valuable service to the community. This dream job that my wife was offered would require us to move. All in all, I knew it was the best thing for the family despite al the things that were going well for us in our curent situation, so I somewhat reluctantly agreed that she should take the job.

We moved about 200 miles away and my wife loves her job still. For several reasons, I wasn't able to get hired at the hospital in this town and I ended up taking a job at a local factory that made hydraulic couplings. I worked in the office with the enginering department doing inventory management and production control. It was a boring job for a crooked company that offered no sense of  satisfaction.

3 weeks ago  I was let go from that job (it was a long time in the works ).  I looked and looked for some other good job, but every interview I had I felt like I had the scarlett letter "T" painted on my forhead since I was terminated from my last job.  I needed a job quick since the bills were piling up, and the first place that offered me a job was...Target. TARGET???!!  I'm working at friggin Target! I can't believe this. I'm 35 and college educated and I'm working at Target for 8 frickin dollars an hour.!!! Oh how that mighty have fallen. Well, there's another cliche' that works too.

I guess there is a bright side to all of this...discontentment. Being discontent is probably a good thing. It makes us think and forces us to take a "personal inventory" and my Counselor friend would say. Through this discontentment Ihave decided to make a few changes. I am going to start my own business and I'm working on setting goals in order to make that happen. I have been thinking about doing this for quite some time, but never realy had the proper motivation until now. So, I guess that every cloud does have a silver lining.   Oh look, another cliche'. 

Posted by jtgjr007 @ 12:27 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments