HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM!

HAPPY 1^st BIRTHDAY
SAM!

The Continuing Job Saga

Here's a brief update on where things stand with my job.

• I held out for and got my years of service carried over to "The Company". Yeah!
• I started with "The Company" on June 1st and received my first pay check (dated tomorrow) today. Yeah!!
• I attended two meetings today where I found out that there were coming layoffs within the division of "The Company" that I am now a part of and that those will be happening in July. Boo!
• I also find out that my team was one of a handful of teams selected to be in the first round of teams reviewed to have up to 35% of their positions replaced by off-shore resources. Boo!!

So, the outlook is very muddy. The next few months should be very interesting.

An Interesting, Hectic Day

I learned today that as of June 1st, I will no longer be an employee of my current employer. Instead, I will become, should I choose to accept the offer, the employee of the company, referred to from now on as "The Company", which contracts my current employer and thus myself.

My team was told this morning that our entire team is being taken over by "The Company" we provide services to, as part of the new contract that had just been negotiated between the two parties. Make sense? Since there is not much time to get us processed and on the payroll for "The Company", a good portion of today was spent in meetings, applying for the positions posted for my team, giving approval to have background checks, and setting up appointments for our fingerprinting - hope they don't discover the fact that we're a gang of criminals disguised as geeks :).

So it was an interesting and hectic day.

It's In The Genes

A Cloud of Little Witnesses

On Wednesday morning as I was having my quiet time in the living room, Ben and Ellie were seated on the couch next to me. I've become accustomed to having one or more children in the room with me during my quiet time. Early on, I had debated about refusing to allow them in the room so as not to be distracted but then I decide that what better way for them to learn than to observe first hand what having a quiet time was like, and it helps keep me accountable because they expect me to have one.

All of the above is just setting the stage and was not on my mind Wednesday morning. I was going over once of the Scripture passages I am trying to memorize, Hebrews 12:1-8. The first verse reads,

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

This verse follows after chapter 11, which is the faith chapter, including the Faith Hall of Fame. So in the context, the great cloud of witnesses is referring to those of the faith who have proceeded us. However, as I sat there repeating the verses, it occurred to me that I also had a different "cloud of witnesses" sitting right there beside me. And how much stronger of a motivation that is to me to "run with perseverance the race marked out for" me, even than those pillars of faith who have gone before me but are no longer in this world.

Who is your "cloud of witnesses" and how are you running your race?

Free Star Maps

If you like looking at stars, you may be interesting in this link I just found. On the page, you can download two free star maps, one for the northern hemisphere and one for the southern hemisphere. They only have the major stars and constellations, but hey, they're free! They also include a map of the major features of the moon. Pretty cool.

Now, if I could only find where I put my binoculars...

Happy Birthday Mike!

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY
MIIIIIIIIIIIKE!!!

My friend Mike turns 40 today. Being the thoughtful, sensitive type, I sent him a present. Below is a picture of what I sent him.



Here's the document so you can actually read it.

Walker Accessory Kit

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Humor Creative Writing

He's already plotting his thoughtful return gift for when I hit that age milestone. May I remind him that he will be turning 50 at some point, so, choose wisely (this could become a vicious downward spiral).

I've Got This Song Under My Skin

This afternoon, during the kids' nap time, I watched the Do-Re-Me YouTube video I had posted about way back when (though that video has been taken down now, but here's the link to another one of it). After doing that, I started watching other songs from that era. As I did, I noticed that I was seeing several singers who had sung "I've Got You Under My Skin". I decided to do a post with collection of some of them and ask for opinions on who you think does the best job. Some of these are big names and some are unknowns. The two loose criterion I had were that the videos be of the performers singing the song and that they did not totally butcher the song.

1. First up is the singer whom many consider to have set the gold standard for this song, Frank Sinatra.



2. Bobby Darin



3. Michael Buble



4. Katharine McPhee



5. Steve Lawrence



6. Boris Titulaer



7. Sammy Davis Jr.: The video does not allow embedding, so follow this link. Also, this video has two songs, with "I've got you under my skin" being the second one.

8. Josh Dubovie



9. Briana Phares



10. Udo (unfortunately the video cuts off before the end of the song)



So, who's your top pick?

Guess Which One

I may regret doing this, but I'm posting a picture of some friends and I from seventh grade. A friend posted this on facebook. "So young", is the thought that keeps going through my mind.

Besides family, can anyone guess which one is me?


As a bonus question, why are we wearing white gloves?

**** UPDATE ****

Congratulations to all who guessed that I was the short one in the right front of the picture. And congratulations to those who guessed that the white gloves were for handbells. That is correct. Marc is the grand winner, as he was the first to comment and he got them both right. I may be misremembering, but I think he played handbells during our college years, at church. As for the prize Marc, it's the thrill of victory - ain't it sweet?! Ya, I'm cheap frugal wise with my resources like that.

Happy Birthday Ben!

Happy
Fourth
Birthday
Benjamin!!!!

It's hard to believe that four years have passed already.

Parents' Visit

The week after Christmas, my parents came for a visit. They had spent Christmas with my sister and her family in Texas, then came to spend New Year's with us. They flew in just hours before it was supposed to start snowing good.

We had a great time. The kids really enjoyed getting to spend time with their grandparents. We had a second Christmas, which the kids of course loved. There was of course, the obligatory eating out :-). There were the snacks and junk food. There was a father-son (meaning my dad and I) electronics shopping trip to Circuit City and Best Buy. We didn't end up buying anything but it was fun to look.

The first Sunday of 2009, we took the opportunity to have a family picture taken, since we were all in our Sunday best.

The picture above has been cropped to remove extra background. Also cropped out was an honorary member of the our clan - Micah. He and our boys are great friends. Can you see the mischievousness on his face?

More December 2008 Snow Pictures

Ben (left) and Will (right) helping me clear the walk.


Will and me.


Ben


Will


Ellie


So much snow (for us).


Ellie inspecting my work.

Sugar Cookies

As the just passed Christmas approached, I decided it would be fun thing to make sugar cookies with the kids. I planned to do it before Christmas but just never got myself together in time. It ended up being started on the day after Christmas. I say started because I did not plan ahead and had not read the recipe prior to beginning after supper. As a result I did not realize that the dough needed to chill for 2-3 hours, putting ready right about bed time for the kids. So we made the dough on Friday and actually made the cookies Saturday afternoon.

The kids' Uncle Stephen and Aunt Jenn had sent them some baking sets and a set of cookie cutters for Christmas, so it worked out well that we did the cookies after Christmas. The kids were very excited to wear their aprons, use their little rolling pins and put cookies on their little baking sheets. Thanks Uncle Stephen and Aunt Jenn!

We used food coloring to dye sugar for the toppings. We had three colors, one for each child. The cookies came out fairly good, given who was in charge. Stephanie had told me that it was all me. But she was kind enough to provide some advice and assistance whenever my desperate cries for help emanated from the kitchen. Thanks honey!

Ben's "gingerbread" man took up the whole sheet

Unfortunately, the pictures of the completed cookies are on the film camera and have not been developed yet. I'll post those when they become available.

World's Cutest Superheros