Larry David Blasted for ‘Curb’ Episode Where He Urinates on Jesus Painting – FOXNews.com

I was taken back today when I read this article.  Needless to say, DirecTV will receive a call shortly to have HBO removed from our subscription.  I encourage you to consider doing the same if they are unwilling to make a public apology.  It is time we made a stand against this type of behavior.

Larry David Blasted for ‘Curb’ Episode Where He Urinates on Jesus Painting – FOXNews.com

 

Pray for our little boys…

We got word this weekend that the orphanage where our two little boys have been living is without food.  It is amazing how the downward spiraling economy affects everyone in the world.  Our adoption agency, Addys Hope, will take any donations that you can spare, so if you feel God calling you to assist, please do not hesitate to lend a hand now.  You can find a link on the Addy’s Hope home page at the bottom left hand side of the page – “Make a Donation”.  Those children in the orphanage need us to pull together right now and it may mean doing without and sacrificing on our end to help them, but we must be willing to step up and put some action behind those thoughts and discussions.  Thanks for any considerations you may have of helping our boys and the other children in the orphanage.

I pray that the Lord would be glorified during these challenging times.

Thomas, Staci and the girls…

So you want to know why our daughters are attending Westminster???

For starters, I really do not care for my children to be subjected to this type of behavior – “Elementary School Students Reportedly Taught Songs Praising President Obama“.  I was not subjected to this when I went through the public school system.  Instead, I spent my time learning what being an American was about and why we had the freedoms that we had, not praising our president for his accomplishments.  True, he has accomplished a great deal, but I would argue he did not do this alone, but through Christ.  Where is that ever mentioned today?  I will tell you where… in Christian based schools like Westminster.  My five (5) year old came home this week and began (without us asking her to and without us even knowing she had been learning it) reciting John 3:16.  Last week, again without us prompting her, she recited the 7 days of creation.  My children are going to be raised to believe and trust that there is a higher power and that we are not in control.  I am astonished that we can take prayer out of our school systems, but yet behave the way we are with our president.  When are Americans going to stand up and say enough is enough!?

Bad business practices…

I read this article today – “Bank Sends Sensitive E-mail to Wrong Gmail Address, Sues Google“.  So tell me, is it right for a Bank to sue Google because Google would not forclose information about the owner of an email account?  I believe it is wrong.  The Bank is at fault here, not Google.  The associate at the Bank made a bad decision that resulted in over 1300 records being sent to an incorrect address.  Poor business practices have led to email being utilized to send this type of information around all day long every single day.  This goes on in probably every single business.  Is it right to send this data around in an email to begin with?  Email has become used for far more than it was ever intended.

The Bank (Rocky Mountain Bank) needs to own up to their bad practices, accept fault, notify the customers and pay the $ required to provide credit monitoring services to the impacted customers.  Based on recent estimates, the cost to the Bank for this breach would be approximately $267,650.  By doing this, the Bank may save its reputation.  Given the low population of the state of Montana, the people may not have a lot of choices in that area, so maybe that is what “Rocky Mountain” is betting on rather than taking care of the customers.

I visited their site and found no mention of the breach nor have I found anything that indicated the Bank has sent letters to the affected customers, so you tell me… bad practices… or is the Bank doing the customers a service by keeping this from them?

Last full day at the beach…

I got a bit sun burned yesterday and got an earfull from the wife, which I guess I deserved.  You would think by now that I would know ‘how not to get sun burned while at the beach’.  The weather is yucky this morning and looks like it might be for the better part of the day.  We have taken the opportunity to clean and begin to pack, so that when it does turn pretty, we can play and not worry so much about packing.  We saw our friends off from Kentucky a couple of hours ago.  They were nice and we both wish that we had gotten to know them earlier in the week.  They plan to drive until they are tired and then stop off some place for the night.  It would take them around 14 hours if they drove straight through.  They were super nice and we enjoyed the conversations with them late last night.  They have a twelve year old son and two twin sons that are around three and a half years old.  I hope they have a safe trip back home.

We hope to get out and play soon, but the weather just keeps looking ugly… big dark clouds and thunder.  We have only seen raine a couple of times this week and those storms passed through quickly with sun soon to follow.  I guess we cannot complain about having one yucky day in a weeks time.  Anyway… I need to get some lunch ready for the gang… hope everyone is doing well.  We will be headed back tomorrow and I think everyone is going to haev a melt down when that time comes… including Staci and myself.

Friday update from the beach…

We awoke to somw wet weather this morning, so I slept in with Campbelly by my side until almost 9:30.  Yep… you read correctly… 9:30.  By the way, that is only 8:30 back in Alabama, so come on, give me a break.  Anyway, we had breakfast (courtesy of Staci and Caroline who had gotten up earlier and driven down the street to grab us some cereal as we had run out) followed by packing up for some time on the beach.  We spent hours down there today and we had a blast.  Staci made a run for some lunch around 1:30ish and came back with a pizza and drinks.  It was awesome.  Anyone every had a pizza while on the beach before??  Didn’t think so… LOL.  We had oreos for desert… heheee.  We played in the surf and finally Staci took Caroline up for a shower and nap.  I kept Campbell in the water for another 30-45 minutes before taking a quick swim in the pool to cool off and then inside for shower and nap.  They went down around 4:15-4:30 and are still asleep as I type this – 7:35… LOL.  The sun can really work on you.  I took a jog around 5:30 and let me tell you, it was one of the hottest runs I have suffered through in a long time.  It was a very mental run for me, which I really needed badly to be honest.  Those kinds of runs make you realize what you are capable of when you keep your mind under control.  I gulped down a bottle of gatorade when I got back and man, was it good.  Anyway, I am about to wake the girls up (Staci also went back and joined them for their nap about 30 minutes ago), so that we can get started with our evening festivities – probably some pool time followed by dinner and catching crabs around 9:30.  See you later!!!

Two more fun days…

Yesterday (8/12) we stayed inside for a while before heading over to Apalachicola for the afternoon.  We enjoyed walking the streets, visiting shops and eating ice cream.  We topped it off with having dinner in Eastpoint (about 15 minutes or so East on highway 98) at a restaurant called ‘That Place On 98′.  I would love to say it was great, but it was not my favorite.  I had a crab cake sandwich and actually enjoy the one at ‘Cajun Steamer’ much more.  Staci and the girls seemed to enjoy theirs.  On our way back, we had to cross back over a long bridge.  While driving across, we noticed this little guy flying along side the bridge headed in the same direction.  He was moving along at around 28mph and was just gliding along effortlessly.  We stayed beside him for several minutes.

Gliding Pelican

Anyone remember the move ‘The Birds’?  LOL… as we drove through Apalachicola, we spotted this and had to snap a shot…

Gang of birds in Apalachicola

Today, we took the girls to the bay and rented a canoe and all the goodies.  We spent about 4 hours in the bay looking at all kinds of marine life.  We also did some scalloping, which was pretty cool.  We brought back at least 35-50 scallops.  I got to learn how to shuck scallops and was able to knock them all out this afternoon in less than an hour after I got the hang of it.  Staci did a great job cooking them as they were wonderful for dinner.  Campbell polished hers off before anything else on her plate and then wanted a second helping.  They were awesome and I recommend anyone go scalloping who has a few extra hours and a nearby bay the next time you are at the beach during August.  PS: Make sure you  buy a fishing permit.  

I snapped this picture on the way back in from the bay as we were approaching the takeout area.  

Girls in canoe

After dinner, Staci took Campbell down to the beach to catch crabs (something we love doing with the girls at night).  Caroline and I piled up in the bed and went fast to sleep.  They ended up catching 13 crabs tonight, which I believe is a new record for us.  I wish you could see Campbell running around trying to catch a  crab with her net.  It is so funny!

Goodnight everyone…

Update from the beach…

We are having a wonderful time at the beach… very relaxing, no stress.  I wanted to give you another update on our animal observations. 

On Monday morning while out running, I spotted another snake.  This one was stretched across the road enjoying the sun.  Appears, after some quick google searches and picture browsing, what I saw was a Red Rat Snake (non-venomous).  I helped him find his way back to into the shade way off of the road… .

Staci and I ventured out to the beach for a moment this morning to find a shell that I had found Monday night while out with the girls catching crabs.  We found it and headed back.  While walking back, we spotted a few stingrays making their way up the beach.  The last two mornings I have gone for a swim after running or biking.  The surf has been wonderful (lets just say there were no waves and the sand was flat, so you could walk about 50 yards out and still be well above water) and I have been able to swim in rather shallow water with my hands just above the sand as I swim.  While swimming this morning, I kept noticing large holes in the sand (about 18 inches wide and 4 or so inches deep).  I was unsure what it was, but was quite interested and so as I continued to swim, I tried to stay focused on the bottom.  I finally figured it out.  I saw numerous stingrays swimming away at one moment and determined they had been in the holes.  I read that they dig the holes and as they dig, they eat what they discover.  I always thought they just stopped and covered themselves with the sand to stay hidden, but turns out they are also eating at the same time… kind of cool.  I am unsure what stingray we are continuing to see here at Cape San Blas, but they are quite common sitings this time of year.  If I figure out what species it is we are seeing, I will post an update.

We ventured back to stump hole today, another favorite spot of ours from last year.  It was quite different.  Stump hole is on the southern tip of the peninsula and is named after the stumps that are left stick up out of the sand once a pine tree falls over in the surf.  This particular area, due to its location, has bad erosion problems, so it was quite different this year.  Most of what we recalled from last year was no longer there, roots from former trees where we had taken so many pictures last summer were long gone.  It was truly amazing that this area could change in one year, but given the hurricanes that come through the gulf each year and what those waves can do to the beach, it is no wonder things are different.  Here is a picture of stump hole from todays trip. 

Stump Hole

This is the root system of a palm tree… taken today at stump hole.  Very cool.

Palm Tree Root system

 Lastly… before closing for today, we spotted an Osprey while at Stump Hole today.  He flew into a tree just above us where we had stopped to play.  He stayed there for half an hour before finally moving to another tree down the beach.  We also got a snapshot of his nest (very large), which was about 30-40 yards off of the beach just behind where we were.  Here is a picture of the Osprey.

Osprey at Stump Hole

Hope everyone is having a great week…

Update from the beach…

We arrived in Cape San Blas yesterday evening around 6:00 EST.  Aside from maybe one new house under construction and one of the two restaurants out on the peninsula being closed, not much has changed since our last visit in September of 2008.  Withinn thirty minutes of arriving we had unpacked the car and were on our way down to the beach.  The girls were so excited.  We made our way down the boardwalk and onto the beach.  The sand felt awesome and given it was that late in the evening, the temperature was great.  We spent the next hour or so playing in the surf.  Campbell took on a large wave and got her first good taste of salt water this round.  Caroline stuck to Staci pretty much like glue.  A man fishing on the beach caught two baby sharks while we were there.  Both were about 1.5 feet long.  The girls loved touching it.  Wen we got ready to leave, Staci could not find her sandles.  Someone had snatched them… imagine that… never had that happen before.  The girls and I played in the pool for a short time while Staci got dinner ready.  Caroline really worked hard on her reach and pulls.  She was very proud of her progress.  This girl is fearless, so watching her every moment around water is a must.  After dinner, I went out and got my bike ready for my ride this morning.  While out, I saw an armadillo over in the grass, so I called Staci and the girls down.  We spent the next 5-10 minutes up close to him watching him dig around in the grass for food.  It was interesting seeing ons that was alive.   This morning, I got up and went for my usual 1 hour bike ride.  Of course I saw more animals while out.  I first saw one young white tail deer near the narrowest part of the peninsula running down the side of the road and into the woods.  A short while later, I saw two more older deer running into the woods near an area referred to as ’stump hole’.  So that makes 2 baby sharks, an armadillo and three white tail deer in less than 14 hours of being here.  We are now having breakfast and headed out to the beach or pool after that.  Hope everyone is well.  I will post some pictures later on.

All we want is an apology…

Been abuot two weeks or so now since the famous ’stupid’ remarks from our President.  Even after the ‘beer summit’, there is still no apology from President Obama.  Come on Mr. President, just acknowledge that you spoke out of turn and stuck your foot in your mouth.  What I hate most is that Police Sergeant James Crowley was told he had to attend and could not turn the offer down.  I mean come on, if someone called you out the way Obama did, for doing your job and protecting citizens, wouldn’t you be excited and just over joyed with an invitation to sit down and discuss it over a beer?  Oh absolutely…