The brainstorming has begun.................

When I get into the groove of trying to figure out how to best work something, my mind starts to run through all sorts of scenarios to try to make it work / work best.

Goal: Nice van

Manipulatives:
3 vehicles
don't need any of them (except to get from place to place)

So.....here is what I'm thinking about now.......

First - You know the original plan was to sell the Lincoln and truck and buy a van. I would drive the Neon.

So I'm talking with Tori about it. I go to Taco Bell (brain food) and I think on the way...."Ok. Wait a minute. The only thing I'll ever do in my vehicle is drive the 3.4 miles (7 minutes) to work. Thats it. Everywhere else is in the van. To church in the van / to friends houses in the van / to parents houses in the van / any and everywhere in the van." I had somewhat thought of this before, which is when I gave up my dream of a Chevy Avalanche. I have always driven well over an hour round trip to work, so when you spend that much time in your vehicle, you'd like to like what you are in so much of your day. But, now I won't even be in it long enough for the engine to heat up in the winter. By the time it starts to warm, I'll already be at the school. So it dawned even more so on me tonight. "It doesn't matter what I drive. In that case - why drive a nice Neon which blue books for over 8 k? I don't need to ride 8 grand down the street and back."

So my brainstorm tonight is sell the Lincoln, Neon AND Dakota. I would sell the Lincoln and which ever of the other two, then buy the van, and then sell the third vehicle. (I have to do it like that to avoid having NO vehicle for a period of time.) This way, I could put more money towards the van. For instance - I could sell the Neon for 8k, put like 5 of that towards the van. Then I could put the last 3 towards something for me to drive to work and back. I might not even need 3k. And this is a double whammy great thing, because then I can sell my weak (albeit newer) 4-cylinder go-cart engine of a Dakota, and then buy a 8 cylinder (albeit older - which is fine) beast of a retro-truck. I could get an old one thats easy to fix. It would just be for driving to work, and I could haul something with it if I wanted to since it would have power. (<--Wouldn't that be nice for a change.) Gas is a non-issue (unlike the rest of America). Tori will not be working. I will work a stone's throw away. Church is like 2 miles away. Local friends are less than that. It would only be a factor when we travel, which is not a regular thing. We have a couple aces up our sleeve like that.

It is fun to try to contrive these things.

This may all change tomorrow - but it's fun to think about.

Pimp my ride

I spent the better part of the first 1/2 of the day detailing my truck. (Part of the sell the truck and Lincoln for a van sales drive.) She's lookin' perdy now. I vacuumed it out really good, took it to the car wash, bought some good wheel degreaser, used some black magic on the tires. The stinky part was that I had left the tool box open because I had a bucket of oil in it I was going to take to the auto store to dump out, and it rained and filled the box with water. There must have been some kind of oatmeal or something back there because it was all over the place. And it smelled HORRIBLE! I used a wet vac to get it out and then drilled a couple of small drainage holes and then washed it out real good at the carwash. Next up will be the Lincoln. That sucker hasn't been washed in no telling how long. The wheels are going to take forever. But....it was fun in a way, so it'll be ok.

Where a kid can be a kid.....

We took the kids at church to Chuck E. Cheese yesterday. The kids had fun.

Micah getting some cereal for the first time....

As you can see, HE LOVED IT!!!!

Ok. Actually, it wasn't as bad as this picture makes it look. But he did prefer the bottle. (I hope that doesn't last into adulthood.) So a big first step for him today.

Eureka! I've found it!!!....or have I?

Ok, so you see, we have this '95 Lincoln Town Car. My parents let us borrow it when the truck was out of commission. They bought a new car, and even when the truck was fixed, they said we could have it. I let them know I was going to sell it and the truck to put towards another vehicle (a van).

So anyway, they keyless entry system stopped working. Blown fuse. I could didn't get around to it, so when my dad was over, he went out there and started looking for a fuse. He found one that was blown, and left it on the counter. They left.

So I go out to cut the grass. The Lincoln was parked in the yard. So I go to crank it up to move it. I turn on the key, the dash board lights come on. But when I turn it the rest of the way, it doesn't hit or anything, and the lights in the dash shut off. (Some of you may already know what the problem was, but I didn't.) So anyway, I think "great." So I cut the grass except for that spot, and then I go out to the car, look at the low-amp fuses under the dash, mess with them, but didn't really change anything. It cranked. "Weird" I thought. So I moved it and cut the grass under it.

I go back out there yesterday, same thing happens. I find the owners manual, and look at the fuses under the dash. I see where the one my dad pulled is missing. So I go to AutoZone, get some 20 amp fuses, go back, replace the burnt one. Same problem. I check the manual, get under the hood and check out the high-amp fuses. I take the cable off the battery, and notice it was loose. Don't think much of it. Examine the fuses and see this one in the picture, which controls the engine fan, with a noticeable burn on it. It's a blown 30 amp, so I go back to the parts store and get some 30's. Replace it...and STILL the same problem.

My neighbor David (the car-audio store guy), sees me out there, comes over. I tell him the problem. He says, "sounds like a loose battery connection". Walks over to the battery, connects and tightens it. ...It cranks fine.

So I try to defend myself saying, there were two blown fuses....but bottom line.....I spent probably an hour out there not doing much, and then my neighbor walks over, fixes the problem and then walks back to his house. Yes! I am a moron. Go me. My neighbor keeps coming over and doing stuff for me. I hope he doesn't ask me for a kidney,.....because at this point I might have to give it to him.

My day

Today I was supposed to go to a workshop thing from 8:00 - 3:30. I went to a workshop. About 9:30, I realized that I was at the wrong workshop. They have that same one on July 27th. Thats when I'm supposed to go to that workshop. I hurriedly get up, scoop up my papers and fumble my way out of the door, to hurry to the workshop I'm supposed to be at across town. On the way out I drop my folder full of papers into a deep puddle.

This is a summary of the beginning of my day.

Micah and his cuz Kaden

Whew! My blue collar work for the day is done....now time to take a shower a do the white collar work. ....I finished cleaning the gutters, disposed of all the wet muck, weed eated, swept up, changed the air furnace filters, checked for moisture in the crawlspace and found lots and plenty of corresponding mold. I'm going to have to take care of that. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy a dehu. Those things are expensive, but it's necessary at this point. Now I have to clean up and fax my secondary insurance to a doctor, find my teaching certificate to send off for some verification stuff, and a few other things. Well, now everyone is caught up on all this stuff that has nothing to do with them. Thanks for listening. :-)

Port-a-potty. For some reason I find this hilarious.

A Florida woman discovered the image of Jesus - on a crisp.

Rosalie Lawson was about to bite into the sour cream and onion potato chip as she watched TV when she suddenly spotted the image.

"I said to myself: "Oh my goodness"," she said. "I showed it to my husband Jerry and he was pretty amazed too."

Deeply religious Mrs Lawson, 55, whose father-in-law the Very Rev. LeRoy Lawson was the first dean of St Petersburg Cathedral in their home town, is now pondering what to do with it.

"It's sitting in a jar in the kitchen while we decide," she said. "We may sell it - I'm not really sure."

Six months ago another Florida woman who discovered an image of the Virgin Mary on her toasted cheese sandwich sold it for �15,000 on eBay.

Sick Wars IV: Revenge of the Virus

Captians Log:

Woke up. Wife sick. Wife to ER. Wife medicine. Wife better. Captain and Wife and little Spock to church. Captain and Wife and little Spock home. Captatin eat Chinese Hot and Sour Soup. Captain good now.

Ok, ok. A little more explanation than that. Tori was still feeling sick today. So I was like, enough of this, and I got her to accept going to the doctor/hospital. She hates the idea, but this is dragging on too long and she was feeling horrible. So....I call around, no doctor available that I talk to.....talk to a walk-in clinic, because of some of her symptons (chest pain, high pulse) they can't take her. So I take her to the ER. Doctor gives her medicine for nausea, etc.. Dad calls, .....he and mom come over. Mom watches Micah while Tori sleeps...Dad and I run a ton of errands like picking up prescriptions, etc. They go home. We go to church, and now Tori has taken some medicine and gone to bed. So.......indeed it was another interesting day. I hope tomorrow is much more boring.

Drugs

I want to order Ambien...or Lunestra...or some real sleep aid over the internet. They are prescription. Does anyone know if I can do this legally? We got a drug for Tori from New Zealand that was not FDA approved (her doctor told us to). I am not addicted to sleeping aids. I can quit anytime I want. Just kidding. But I do like having them for the rare occasion of insomnia that I have. I don't want some nancy-pants Tylenol PM or something. I want the real thing. Any ideas?

One Million Dads

One Million Dads - a project of the American Family Association

This is a program that I am a member of. <--Should that end in a preposition? <--Did I spell preposition right? <--Did I mention that I'm going to teach 1 Language Arts class next year? anyway..........

As a Christian I have a responsibility to be involved and make a positive impact, and not stand by the wayside. I don't get too wrapped up in this because I believe the world is going down the toilet and it is inevitiable..........but that doesn't mean I still don't have a responsibility to do what I can.

So, thats why I like organizations like the ACLJ (American Center for Law and Justice [Conservative equivalent to the ACLU]), American Family Association, Focus on the Family, etc....because they do the footwork of finding out what's going on, and then they present it to you in a do-able fashion.

So anyway, I would like to hardily recommend going to http://www.onemilliondads.com

...and signing up. What they do is send you an email every once in awhile, you click on the link, they tell you what the dealio is, and they show you what you can do. Usually it is filling out a pre-made :-) form that sends a letter of protest on your behalf, or to a congressman, etc. Sometimes they might give you a phone number to call. I've called once to add my name to something. You also get this cool little scorecard that keeps up with all the things you've done. (You provide this as initiative verification at the gates of Heaven.) Bottom line, ....they provide you with the ways that are necessary to really do something. And because of collective effort, they sometimes.....not all the time, but sometimes do make a difference.

So I recommend it.

If you don't do it you're not a Christian.

And you don't love Jesus.

Selah.

Trifecta

Micah has the virus. .....great :-/

Poor little guy has been throwing up like crazy. But its just not the same as an adult doing it. Those with chitlins know what I mean. He just opens his little mouth and it looks like someone turns on a water fountain statue. Almost no movement, it just squirts out. We are feeding him smaller amounts of formula and Pedialite, and Tori has been in contact with the on-call pediatrist (or is that a foot-doctor?). He will go to the doctor tomorrow, and we are watching him close tonight.

I am over my stuff. Tori is not quite over hers. But she is better, even if she wouldn't tell you so. Now it's night time and all is quite, Micah is asleep, Tori is about asleep, the T-storms are back and I'm back on the computer. I have spent quite a bit of time at home the last couple of days. Kind of like being couped up at the hospital, but just at the house. At least this way I can do some things. I have worked on cleaning the gutters, cleaned out the hot tub/cleaned the filters/ changed the water, worked on making DVDs on the computer (did not go well....stupid computers.....), etc. Funny thing is, as much as I hate us being sick......I love being at home. Maybe not quite THIS much, but I do love being at home. It's so nice not to have to go to work, and do things at the house.

So anyway, tomorrow promises to be another interesting day. We'll see what happens........

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

A word from David Cox II, III & IV

The following is a guest post from David:

Ever since I was married five years ago, I have wanted children.  I
love children!  They are so moldable, innocent, honest, and hilarious.  To
think of a little David or a beautiful baby girl has always brought a smile
to my face.  I would teach my son to be a warrior.  Ready to protect and love
his family and ready to fight for Jesus.  I would teach him to stand up
tall when others back away.  I would teach him that he is valuable and he
must learn to value.  I would love my daughter with an unconditional love.
A love that she would count on to hold her close and protect her.  A love
that would give her confidence and strength.  Her beauty would not be missed
in my house!  Her worth would be priceless...and she would know it.
In my mind, this is the easy part.  The hard part is physically, or more
specifically, financially supporting a family.  Joanna and I have
always held off on starting a family until we could "afford" it.  We must save
for a baby.  We must have a good "nest egg".  Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah.
Needless to say, we decided that a little hard and tight times would be worth
having a little prophet around.  And then there was David Elijah Cox.  We
planned this little warrior.  In Jan. of 2004 we started trying to get pregnant
and in March Joanna missed her "time".  November 11, 2004 my son was born
into this world and I cried.  WOW!  Amazing!  And I love it.  He is now
scooting all over the house and his baby food and formula powder never runs out.
Rain?!?  What is rain?

Our family has started according to plan.  We've talked about waiting
one to two years to start trying again.  I want our children to be close
together. But we must be "ready".

Well, ladies and gentlemen, ready or not, here comes the next child in
the Cox house.  We found out Joanna is pregnant again.  Definite suprise.
It is due on or around Jan. 16.  Our first ultrasound is next Monday.  I
can't wait to have two kids in diapers.  Two car seats.  Two children wanting
their daddy.

Side note:  When this child is born, Joanna would have spent 18 out of
the last 24 months pregnant.  You go girl!

Reconstruction

We are on our way back to becoming well again. It has been slow though. We are going to try to eat Chicken Noodle Soup for lunch and get back some energy. I'm starting to try to get some work done. I've lost between 10 - 13 lbs., since I began getting sick. Thats kinda funny. Most of that is just dehydration/water weight. I'll gain quite a few of those pounds back once I become hydrated again.

I think things are starting to look up. But I think I'm not going to be interested in Ryan's Steakhouse for awhile.

I will spare you the gruesome details....

...but we have been sick! I think it is/was a stomach virus, but it could be food poisoning. I have never vomited that much and that violently in my life. At least 20+ times. It was one of those "curled up in the fetal position on the bathroom floor" kind of nights. I actually hurt my lower back throwing up. I needed to lay down, but it was uncomfortable to do so. I started to feel better about 7-8 hrs. into it. And Tori is in the middle of it right now. It is especially bad for her because of the stomach surgery she had. She is not really able to throw up, and hacking could bust her surgery. Hopefully Micah will not get this stuff. If he does, I'm sure we'll be taking him to the hospital.

It was one of those things, where you know sometimes you get sick.....but then after being so bad, for so long, you're like "Ok God......where are you going with this?" I thought, I wonder if there is a lesson to be learned in this? Probably a good reminder, that you can make money, make plans, etc., but it takes less than the twinkle of an eye for God to allow you to go through whatever trial He wants for you.

Life.........always some drama.

Going out of town for a few days

Tori and Micah and I are going to Warner Robins to spend a few days with her family. We will be back Sunday afternoon. But I should be able to get on the internet there. (Although I can't use my yahoo email.)

I just got back from a good-bye lunch for Eric, the youth pastor at our church who's leaving. Now for dinner I go to a good-bye dinner for me from my old school.

Hopefully the real summer is about here now, and it time to relax.

Jared scares my son. Ok, not really. Actually Jared has bought Micah two blankets which are definetly his favorite. A blue doggy blanket and a green frog blanket. I don't know why he likes those things so much. Although Jared has some ideas. Jared's pretty good with Micah. And I'm sure Micah will like Uncle Jared too, who doesn't like people why get you cool stuff. Just don't be puttin' a nipple on a bottle of cookies n' cream and feed him a bunch of fruit roll ups. Jared's a good friend, and he'll be a good Uncle too. --Thanks Jared.