Dream Home

I've always enjoyed looking at house plans, drawing my own house plans, and even more so, walking around houses looking at their layout. Even as a child, I knew that someday I'd be building a house to live in. It hasn't happened yet, but I know that someday, maybe even soon, it will.Jodi got me a book of luxury home plans last year for our fifth anniversary and I love it. Not only does it have the floor plans for the houses but since they are all actual homes, they've included photos of them as well so that you can really see how they look completed. I doubt that we'll ever build one of the houses in the book, but I imagine that we will incorporate...

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Missing Cat

Our cat, Tracker, has been missing now for 14 days. Two weeks ago, I let him out while I was getting ready for work. Then, I let him back in as I was leaving. That was the last I saw of him. Jodi let him out later that day and he's never returned. I walked all around the neighborhood, but saw no sign of him anywhere. Jodi went to both the animal shelter and the Humane Society the next day and saw a lot of sad faces but not Tracker's.I hate to speak of him as if he were gone for good, but it's time I quit looking out the door for him. I keep expecting that sooner or later he'll have climbed the screen door again (which always irritated...

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Room Transformation (in progress)

Last Saturday, Jodi and I started the transformation of Lyric's old bedroom to Ezra's new bedroom. Months ago, Lyric began sleeping in Jacob's room on the top bunk. Neither Jacob nor Lyric would have it any other way. They like being roommates, I guess. And, being the largest room in the house, there's plenty of room for them, though we may have to figure out a better layout. The full drum kit takes up a lot of space.All the decor in Lyric's room has come down which was sad to us, but the fun has just begun really. We've mudded up the walls to fill in all the holes from past decor, and even filled in and smoothed out a few cracks in the...

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8 Simple Rules

I have a wonderful marriage. It's easy for me to say it, too. It's not wishful thinking. It's not hopeful optimism. It's simply true. I'm not comparing my marriage to other marriages, either.Back on the sixth of this month, Jodi and I had our seventh yeariversary (the anniversary of the day we met). Of those seven years, we've enjoyed 5 years and 5 months of an amazing marriage and I would like to share some marriage basics to the men out there that stand to only improve your marriage (women will surely gain from this advice, too, so keep reading, ladies). The following list is not in any particular order nor is it complete, by any means....

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Theft by Deception

I don't think that I've written a blog this short since I started blogging. I've wanted to write one about this subject for a long time, but what was taking so long was that I knew that it wouldn't be a short one. I'd fill the World Wide Web full of my opinion and rantings and no one would even begin to attempt to read it knowing that they would be bored out of their skull long before they even finished the introduction. Even now, I'm losing some of you. So, being sensitive to my impatient fast-food culture blog readers, I'll keep it very short.A few years ago, I watched a video online called Theft by Deception. In short, it takes you through...

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How I Met Your Mother

It was December 6th, 2003. I had long hair again. I had grown my hair out over the course of the previous year or better in the same style that I had had through the latter three years of high school. It wasn't too popular of a hair style then, but acceptable nonetheless. It definitely wasn't in style in 2003. Not hardly, but I didn't care.It was about 1:00 AM if I remember right and I was playing a game of cards called "Spit" with my friend, Gabe, over at Shannon's house. Shannon told us that her friend Jodi was coming over. Then the two of them proceeded to tell me about her not even attempting to conceal the fact that they thought that...

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New Favorite

There was a time (before meeting Jodi and having some accountability) when I ate Chinese food about three times a week on average. And, I do mean on average. There were weeks that I hit five times. I admit it. So, it goes without saying that I really like Chinese food, I think. My wife can attest to the fact that any time someone brings up getting food from somewhere or going out to eat that my mind, by default, goes straight to those deep fried little pieces of sweet sauce covered heaven.So, imagine my surprise upon finding a restaurant that I like more than Chinese. Or maybe I should be more specific since the restaurant in which I found...

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