A Tour of Texas Stadium

One of the things I love about being a father is I get to be a kid again and I get to do things I've never done.

One of those things was touring Texas Stadium but we did that today. Below is a picture of the boys in the Stadium Club looking out onto the field.



We also got to go to a suite, tour the locker room and then go out onto the field. I was a little surprised that the locker room wasn't any bigger than it is and it is not very elaborate. Apparently it hasn't changed since the stadium was built.

The biggest kick was going on the field. I have to admit, I felt twelve again as I looked up at the hole in the roof. We had fun running on the field, taking pictures on the star and throwing the football around. Seth and Chase even ran a few pass patterns for me.

Stay tuned to find out what is next on the list...

Heard in the Car

This is a conversation that went on as we were trying to leave tonight.

Chase - I want my hat.
Shelley - Ok, Seth, do you want me to get yours?
Seth - No
Shelley goes and returns with Chase's hat.
Seth - I want my hat.
Shelley - I thought you said you didn't want your hat?
Seth - I changed my mind.
As Shelley is leaving
Me to Shelley - You should have known better
Seth - What did you say?
Me - Nothing, I was talking to Mommy.
Seth - About how cute I am?

Does this surprise anyone?

My Conservative Identity:

You are a Faith-Based Fighter, also known as a religious conservative. You believe in Judeo-Christian values, restoring God’s rightful place in the public square, and in showing all the unwashed and unsaved liberal sinners the path to salvation, or at least to the GOP.

Take the quiz at www.FightLiberals.com

New Patton Video

I thought this was really good!!
If you don't see the video then go to the link

Communication

I am 40 years old and it has taken me about 24 years and many hours of counseling to learn how important communication is woman. I might not be very good at it still but I do get it.

That is the good news for Shelley but the bad news is she still has two other males living under her roof.

Last night on our way home from church where Seth had just spent 3 fun filled hours participating in our church's version of vacation bible school, Shelley said, "Seth, when you get home you need to tell Grandmama all about what you did today."

Seth replied, "I don't feel like it."

I think this drained all of the energy out of Shelley.

One down but two to go...

Training Camp Starts Today

Today is a day I have been looking forward to since the Rangers got off to a 19 - 34 record. It is the start of Cowboys' training camp. I now have five months of the Cowboys being in the news. Below is their practice schedule for camp.



Tuesday, July 24 6:00-9:00PM (Kick-Off Event)
Wednesday, July 25 2:30-4:30PM
Thursday, July 26 9:00-11:00AM and 3:30-5:00PM
Friday, July 27 2:30-4:30PM
Saturday, July 28 9:00-11:00AM and 3:30-5:00PM
Sunday, July 29 2:30-4:30PM
Monday, July 30 9:00-11:00AM and 3:30-5:00PM
Tuesday, July 31 2:30-4:30PM
Wednesday, August 1 9:00-11:00AM and 3:30-5:00PM
Thursday, August 2 2:30-4:30PM
Friday, August 3 2:30-4:30PM
Saturday, August 4 9:00-11:00AM and 3:30-5:00PM
Sunday, August 5 2:30-4:30PM

Monday, August 6 9:00-11:00AM and 2:30-4:30PM
Tuesday, August 7 2:30-4:30PM
Wednesday, August 8 2:30-4:30PM (Break Camp

Giving Back

Tithing was one of the hardest decisions I ever made. Giving back 10% of my income seemed like an impossible thing to do but I took the leap of faith and I have been blessed thousands of times over. The concept of waiting on God to bless you and then giving versus giving and then receiving the blessing of God was a difficult one for me to understand.

Some of you know that I have a business I have started on the side with my brother called Live To Shoot. It is just in its infancy and we have been trying to grow it. Last week Shelley encouraged me to start giving more than we have knowing that God will bless us and hopefully bless Live To Shoot, so I started that this week.

We have also started another project at Live To Shoot for giving back. Go here to find out more about it.

Boys being Boys

I think at times Shelley is still getting use to raising boys. The other night was an example.

The boys started wrestling in the living room floor. They weren't fighting but they had discovered the fun of trying to wrestle the other one to the floor.

Shelley was on the edge of her seat as she watched her two precious angels throwing each other to the floor. She commented "there is just too much testerone in here."

They were just boys being boys...

Joys of Fatherhood

Just a few things I have enjoyed recently.

1. Coming home after the boys have returned from a week at Grandmama's and them running up to me and saying "We missed you."

2. Watching them sleep.

3. Being the "bad guy" when they play super heroes.

4. Being a pony that they can ride.

5. Watching them play in the park.

6. Hearing them recite the Fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22 - 23

7. Listening to them belt out Martina McBride's "Anyway" and Yanci McGregor's "I'll Fly Away."

You know you are a parent when...

Last Friday was Shelley's birthday and how did we celebrate it? We went to America's Incredible Pizza Company.



My birthday is next month and do you know how we are celebrating it? Yes, we are going to The Wiggles concert.



I can't think of two better ways to spend a pair of birthdays.

Don't be a guy

My latest Dadbloggers post is now available. It is called Don't be a guy.

Read it here

Boys are Back in Town

My boys are back in town.

Video

Dallas Cowboys' Stadium Update

Here are the latest Cowboys' Stadium pics.








These are from the Cowboys' website.

I miss my guys

My guys have been at their Grandmother's since Thursday and I really miss them. I know I often find myself wanting just 5 minutes to myself and I'm sure most parents understand this. Well, I think 5 minutes is all I need because I am really wishing they were here now.

Happy Anniversary Diet Coke

Today is the 25th Anniversary of the release of Diet Coke. Happy Anniversary Diet Coke!

Rain, Rain...

If you noticed I stopped short of saying "go away" because after living in Texas for 22 years, I have come to know that rain in July is a precious commodity but this is getting a little ridiculous.

Average yearly rainfall in Dallas is 34.73 inches. As of July 4th we have had 35 inches. The average total for the entire month of January is 2 inches and through the 4th we have had 3.15 inches and it is raining as I write this.

One nice thing is that I don't know if we have had the temperature reach 95 yet so our electric bill and water bills have been very low.

Another plus is God was good enough to push the pause button on the rain yesterday so we could have a nice 4th of July. Shelley tells you all about it here.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July. I hope everyone enjoys the day but takes a moment to thank God for this wonderful country we are so blessed to live in.

Uverse Update

I thought I would post an update on how the U-verse service from AT&T is going. Overall it is fine. We really enjoy the ability to tape up to 4 shows at once and we have been getting a lot of use of the On Demand feature. I have had to call support a couple of times because of problems with the set top box but, the support staff is very friendly and have been able to resolve the problem.

My biggest issue is with the release of new features. From my original post I mentioned 2 features I was hoping to get soon.

The first was "whole home DVR." This is what my original post said
We will soon be able to access our recordings from any tv in the house.

The other feature was caller ID displayed on the TV. This is what I said in the post

Also, I find it ironic that we are purchasing this from the phone company and the one feature we lost was the ability to have caller id appear on the screen when a call comes in. But, this is something they will be adding soon.

As you can see I was told that both of these would be coming soon. But, below you can see the recently released schedule for new features and both of these are scheduled for late 2008. Yes, 2008, not 2007. I guess AT&T's definition of "soon" and my definition are a little different.

Cute things heard around the house

From Shelley's blog, here are a few cute things heard around the house.

Here and here..

Dell Laptops

As I wrote in this post I recently got a new laptop for work. Well, this laptop is a Dell and it is my first experience using a Dell. Now, Shelley's work laptop is also a Dell so it wasn't the first Dell in our house.

Prior to me getting my Dell, Shelley had all sorts of little issue with hers. For example, it was always losing connection with our home wireless network while my IBM Thinkpad never had this issue. She also complained that it would often just freeze for 10 to 15 seconds where you couldn't do anything. I knew these things were annoying but I didn't appreciate it until it started happening to me.

My new Dell has a lot of those same interesting features. It does do the "freezing" thing periodically and it is really frustrating. It also has this nice feature where when you are trying to click on something with the mouse, the pointer just starts jumping around randomly. But, the most annoying thing is that at least 20 times a day, as I try to point with the mouse it acts like I am holding the shift key and starts highlighting everything on the page and won't let you click on anything. It drives me freakin' crazy.

And finally this morning I had to uninstall and reinstall the audio drivers for the 3rd time because all of the sudden it will quit having any sound.

Needless to say, I hate this laptop and based on our combined experience between Shelley's and mine, I will never buy a Dell laptop again.