Ludicrous speed!

I love Spaceballs too much to not use this clip, but there is another song that fits what I am writing about today.  If you have listened to country ever or lived in the south you have probably heard this song at least once.  "I'm in hurry" by Alabama.

"I'm in a hurry to get things done

Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun

All I really gotta do is live and die

But I'm in a hurry and don't know why.

This song fits me pretty well.  Everything I do I feel as though I am punching  time clock.  If you know me at all, you know that punctuality is extremely important to me and I am rarely late.  However, even when I know I will be on time, I still speed, hurry and get very impatient when detours occur.

I started writing this back in April and interestingly enough, after I wrote the above, I started to really pay attention to trying to slow down when I did things.  It did seem to help and to help me realize how fast things are going.

Now as I write this tonight, Emeline will be starting Kindergarten tomorrow. I have been thinking about it for a few weeks now and I can't believe we are starting the next phase with her.  It doesn't seem real that she is starting school.

Even though the girls have been going to preschool the last few years, it just means we are another step close to the girls getting older.  Odette will be 4 in October and with Emeline starting "real" school, we are slowly moving out of the toddler, preschooler ages and getting closer to that whole school age kid.

As this moment appeared out of nowhere, I know the next phase will just as quickly.  I hope that I can learn to slow down and appreciate what matters and not look back and have missed anything.


Josh

Well, that was fun

Put away the moving boxes, cancel the truck.  The good news is that we are not moving.  After 2 1/2 months of our house being on the market we got exactly 0 offers. I have to say the experience of having the house up for sale did have a few positives as it helped us develop a few new habits on keeping the house clean and picking things up.  It also allowed us to paint and do some repairs that we had wanted to do, but just didn't make it happen.

I am a bit frustrated that we didn't get any offers, even a low one.  While our house could use a few improvements, it is overall in very good shape and for the price/amount of house, I feel like the price was close.

To top off the last week of finally deciding to take the house off the market, the last showing found a leak.  A leak that ended up ruining our entire kitchen floor.  That ended up being the tipping point.

So right now we are waiting on insurance to tell us what they will cover and we will hopefully get moving on getting the kitchen floor replaced.

Not moving will be a good thing.  I hope it will give us some time to wrap up my house in Acworth.  We are in month 8 of the "short" sale process and by the looks of it, probably several more months to go.

Here's to not having to keep the house "show ready" 24/7 and to what staying here will mean.

Until next time,

Josh

Eight days a week

Phew, it has been a busy 2 weeks. Last week seemed like it would never end and in the same breath, I felt like it barely happened.

I was on night support for work and on the second night I came down with the stomach bug.  I was the first, then Emeline and then Amy followed.  In the middle of all of that my Dad and I had started painting our living room so by the time I had come down with the bug, we were fully committed to the living room and needing to finish it up.  On top of all of that, Amy started feeling bad a couple of days before the bug fully got her so any chance of napping was gone.

Needless to say it was a long week.

It has been a rough few weeks.  The girls have hit a new stride of "pushing" buttons and boundaries.  We still have the house up for sale and trying to keep the house cleaned is tough.  Interestingly enough, none of the showings have been very good.  I didn't think it would bother me, but it is tough to have people after people come and look at our house with nothing positive to say.   You feel like why did they waste our time?  As it would be, almost all of the showings have been fairly inconvenient and to get negative feedback is defeating.  We like our house and work hard to keep it clean and to have others not like it, makes it feel like a personal attack.

Understandably, it is not, but after seeing the comments, you wonder if people even look at the listing prior to coming to the house.  Our listing is pretty accurate and the pictures do the house justice.  Believe it or not, the price is even listed too! Probably the dumbest question that is being answered is "what do you think of the price?".  I must be missing something because to me, if the price was not in your budget, or too far over your budget, you would not be looking at the house anyway.

Evidently, I am in the minority, because 90% of the showings have complained about the price.  I'm just not cut out for the house showing business. I pray that we get a good showing soon and an offer.  I also hope that things can get back to 'normal' for a time and we can find some rest.

Until next week,


Josh

I've never heard that one before

You're the cashier, you are ringing up someone and the item you are scanning doesn't ring up.  If you have worked in retail at all, I bet I can guess what you are already thinking.  The customer saying "it must be free".  I bet you never heard that before...

I experienced an event last night that made me think of the concept of hearing the same thing a thousand times, but from a thousand different people.

Part of my job is phone support.  I looked this morning and I took a little over 600 calls last year.  Something else occurred to me as well.  I have repeated myself, a lot.  I've asked "Is it powered on?", "Are you even in the same location as the issue?", "Why did you restart it? I didn't ask you to do that" , over and over and over again.

However, as the customer who wants the free item, most of the time, the callers have not talked to me before.  They've never had the joy of hearing me ask them if the unit was turned on.  Knowing that, why do I act like they have?

It's like the artist that sings the same set list night after night, it is not the audience's fault they've played their radio hit a million times.  The audience paid good money to be there and they expect the artist to perform that song as if they are the only performance they will ever do.

Taking customer calls is a lot like that.  Even though I've sang the same song over and over, the caller has not heard it yet.

Something I have to do is to remind myself that each call is the "first" time and know that even though I'm tired of repeating myself, they are hearing it for the first time.  I think if I can own that concept, I will be a much calmer person.


Until next week,

Josh

A day late and a dollar...few thousand short

So I didn't make my weekly scheduled blog post.  I have a topic that I want to write about, but lately, I have been really tired.  In having the house up for sale, it feels like we are in a constant state of cleaning.  On top of that, we've just hit a busy spell again.  The girls and Amy were sick, then I had a day of being sick.  So what I am trying to say is that I am in a tired rut and feel like being a bit whiny.

As anytime change is on the horizon, it causes me to be a bit introspective, pondering where I am at in my life.  Makes me question choices I've made and what I am doing.  All in all, it has been a tiring few weeks.

Until next week, 

Josh

Flashback

Last week I was going through my google drive and found some things I wrote several years ago.  It is interesting to me to read what I wrote in the past.  I can see how I viewed things and where I've grown.  It is also interesting to me to see how some views have not faltered.  Below is one of my writings.  It is a bit lengthy, but I feel like they are good points.  Enjoy!

August 8, 2008,

In Acts 2 , Paul is talking to the Jewish people and basically telling them to repent and come to Christ. He is also telling them that they have to turn from their traditions and accept Christ. Something that would be a huge deal in the Jewish culture. As with most religions and groups, if you decide to leave, there is shame, ridicule, and sometimes exile.

If you look at the early church in Acts, it is very obvious that the message being preached was not one of, come and be happy, or come and be prosperous, it was repent or go to hell. That is about it, there was no free car give away or free gas cards for coming to church. It was very much a take it or leave it mentality.

The part that is frustrating me as of late, is for some reason, churches have decided to cater to the non-believer. “We don't want them to feel uncomfortable” or “we don't want it to seem like church”. Why not? Since when did church not need to feel like church? We are to preach the Gospel, not serve coffee and donuts. Now, I am not saying that church that serves coffee and donuts is not doing something right. There is a very big difference in biblical reasons and traditional reasons, but the evangelical church today seems to be very concerned with making everyone comfortable. We don't want to offend anyone. We will just leave abortion or homosexuality alone, we don't want to make anyone “uncomfortable”. I heard on the radio the other day someone saying that if the gospel is preached around non-believers it is going to make them uncomfortable. If the word in not in you it will sound foreign. The bible talks explicitly about that. Why can't the church just worry about preaching the gospel and let God take care of the rest? If we are being true followers and preaching, the gospel will not fall on deaf ears. People will be drawn to it, the gospel, the truth. That is what happens when churches grow, they are preaching the truth. That is the only thing that will eternally grow a church. Look at the Billy Graham crusades, he did not do raffle drawings or ease into the word. He messages were about repentance. That was all, Jesus is Lord and you need to follow Him. He is the only way to Heaven. Period, end of sentence. That is all you need to say,

Think of it this way. If a non-believer comes into your church and that sunday the straight up gospel is not presented, that may have been the only time that person would have step foot into the church. Instead of hearing the way to heaven, they heard a great life lesson on how to live their life better. Good for them, go to the book store and there are entire sections dedicated to self help. Instead, they could have heard the leave your earthly ways and live for God. “Give up your life so you can have it” We are so concerned about hurting someones feelings are scaring them away, that we hesitate to tell them they have to give up their old lifestyle and be born again. That means rejecting your old ways and changing your habits, your life style. That is what Paul told the Jews, and 3000 did that, just by hearing the truth, not because he put our cushy chairs or made sure he did not start his preaching too early in the morning, or step on anyones toes.

How can we preach change but yet, cater to the world so they wont have to change? If people do not need to change to come to church, how can we expect them to change for Christ? We give off the impression that all you need to do is believe and accept, but lots of time repentance is left out, Accepting Christ's gift is not “free” it is available for ANYONE who wants it, but it does not come without a price. However, it is worth far more then we could ever give up, far more then we could ever imagine.

There is something that I heard once and I can't type it out correctly, but the jest of it was saying that how we lead people to Christ is how they will expect their Christian walk to be. That is a lot easier said then typed, but basically we need to stop misleading people into thinking that Christianity is a get out of hell free card and start letting them know that it is a life change, one that could cause them to lose their friends, and even family connections. It is a costly decision, not one that can be made without those changes. Please Church, stop catering, start preaching, that is all that has to happen. Preach the truth every sunday and people will come. The world is seeking truth and human nature is to seek the truth, it is a desire that is in everyone (I wonder who put that there?) and when the Word of God is being spoken, that will be all you need. A tent can bring as many souls to Christ as a 50,000 square foot A/C cushy reclining chairs with the biggest sound system and the greatest band. Christ is the only thing a church needs. People will be reached, just follow the example in Acts.

Time for a change

October 1987, I was 5 years old and we just moved into a house in Snellville.  Little did I know, I would live there until my early 20's.  Further more, I never would have imagined that I would be able to bring my family here and have my daughters get to live in the same house that I did.

It was a very sweet moment for me to move back in to this house in October of 2011, 24 years to the month that I first moved in.  Instead of being a 5 year old kid, I  was a 29 year old married father of two.

I've played outside with my girls creating memories that overlaid on top of my own memories.  They sleep where I slept, eat where I ate. Played my drums in the basement, where I played my first set.  I've been able to re-live so many of the milestones in my life that happened when I lived here and create so many new ones.  When we first moved back in, I knew all of the sounds the house made.  As we would lay in bed at night, I knew the creaks from the bumps and all the noises in between.  It was like hearing a familiar song and knowing what note comes next.

As all things in life, things change.  By the end of this week, our house will be up for sale.  Amy and I are starting to look for somewhere and we will start a new chapter in our life.  It is bittersweet that after 27 years, the house will be no longer be in our family, but change can be good.

This will be a good step for my parents.  They still own the house and for the last 3 years have been very gracious to let us live here and to help supplement our rent so that we could be here.  The grand plan was for us to be able to buy the house or take over full payments after a couple of years, but 3 years in, the cards are just not lining up.  With some changes in my dads employment and the fact that I am still in the extremely long process of trying to short-sale my house in Acworth, it just makes sense to sell now.  Ahh, my house in Acworth, the gift of buying cheap just before the housing market crashed, it leaves you with a house that is worth almost nothing and no where to go but out. Thus generating a few more years of patience that Amy and I will have to endure before we are able to make a permanent home for our family.

It is sad in a way, and for now, the idea has set in, but not reality.  I will miss this house.  The sounds, the smells, the memories.  I will have the memories and the pictures.  It will always be my house in my heart and I so thankful the girls will get to remember it as theirs too.



Until next week,

Josh

How did you get where you are going?

This is a topic that I have written on a few times before, but have you ever wondered how you ended up where you are?  Looked at others and wondered what decisions led them to the lifestyle they are currently leading.

It was that one cross road, they idea that it would be, "just this once" when you had that opportunity to chose the "red pill, or the blue pill".  Why did you pick what you picked?  Was it pressure from someone, the idea that it was going to benefit you or even, you knew it was not beneficial, but did it anyway?

Why do we do that? Why did we do that? Think about it.  Good news, it can change. You can change.  Don't let your past dictate your future.  When repent and turn to Christ, we are given a new heart, new desires, new priorities.  Don't let tomorrow be dictated by today.

Below is something I wrote back in 2010 regarding this same grain of thought.

Josh

When did you become you?

September 5, 2010 at 10:14pm

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Have you ever stopped to think when you became yourself?  What brought you to who you are right now?  I was looking around the other day at people and then contrasting that to Emeline and wondered what brought them to that point in their life.  At some point as Emeline grows, she is going to start making decisions.  I am praying that early on she will find her Salvation with Christ and that will shape her thoughts and desires, but even so, as she grows she will start becoming Emeline the kid, teenager, then finally the adult.

What made you who you are?  Think about yourself when you were a kid.  Did you worry so much about what people think?  What you were going to wear the next day, or what you were eating that night?  All it took was a stuffed animal and a nightlight and all was well with the world.  When did that stop being enough?  When did that 1 decision lead to more "1 decisions" that brings you up to you as you read this?  Is this what you imagined yourself to be?  Are you the kind, innocent, person of your youth?  Why not?  Did one person urge you to make a bad choice that started it all.  If you are someone who is always into trouble, think back to before you were, what happened? Why are you doing it now? I know that we are all fallen (Romans 3:23) but when did you become hateful, judgmental, proud, or conceded?  When did you become kind, loving and compassionate?  Have you lived your life the way you wanted to or the way God wants you to?

Who was today about, you or God?  It is never too late to change, to turn (repent) from our selfish ways and desires and put our life into the hands of the Lord Jesus.  If you do not like who you have become, you can be renewed in Christ.

Each decision you make can bring you closer to the person you wanted to be, or closer to the person you never thought you would be.  It is strange to compare a kid next to an adult.  They have it right.  God wants us to have faith like a child.  Why do we pervert that?  Before you make that next choice, or follow through with that next decision.  Stop for a min and think it through.  Is this who you really wanted to become?  Most importantly, is this who God wants me to be.

You big meanie

It is amazing how us humans are such a proud race.  "I'm not going to let someone do that to,,, ME!" The nerve of someone to think the universe does not revolve around me...  I can't imagine why everyone does not realize that in my world I am right, even when I realize I am not.

One thing I will not do is defend the indefensible.  If I'm caught with red paint on my hands and the wall behind me has my hand prints, I am not going to try to defend myself.  However, if you are, in my head, unseasonably mean to me, I will not stand for it.  Most of the time, I am going to look for allies to make sure my indignation is in check, then watch out, I will return fire with logic that at times, can make your head spin.

What is interesting is that when dealing with the "public" I generally will use my logic and stay fairly civil with the opposing side, but with my family, mostly Amy, I turn in to Mr. Jerk pants.  How dare she speak ill at me! I find myself looking for an instant epiphany from her to understand exactly where I am coming from, what I meant, regardless of my tone and what I have subconsciously deemed as an acceptable response/behaviour from her.  I mean, how could she possibly be thinking the same thing about me? I didn't do anything wrong...

90% of the time, if I just walked away and waited 10 min, the disagreement is either a) a mute point or b) not nearly as earth shattering as I thought.  Although, as I mentioned in my first sentence, why would I let that happen, I am right.

The other 10% of the time...ok 90% of the time, what I intended to be nothing more than a factual statement, is construed as a vicious personal attack on Amy.  To me, stating, "dinner is not ready? you said an hour" is really nothing more than a verbal notation that it has been an hour and well, dinner is not ready.  Thus expecting the same logical response from her of, "yep, it'll be about 20 more min."

However, as I'm told, when it comes out of my mouth it sounds something along the lines of "you suck at life and I do not appreciate your efforts to make a tasty dinner for our family". How the translation is lost, I don't know... well, I can't really say that, since a year ago I started this blog with the intention of examining myself and the tone of my voice to try to get to the bottom of it.

I can tell you that I am not exactly there.  I get so frustrated that I hold myself and my words to a much lower standard to my wife than I do anyone outside of my household.  Especially since I have to live with her everyday.  One would think I would put my forth my best effort here at home.

The other item is my desire to resolve any conflict/problem/issue etc. instantly.  It is interesting, I only have that drive to resolve something immediately is if it is bad, or if I feel wronged.  If it meets that criteria, I want it cleared up immediately.  Because of this, when I might actually be right and be due an apology, I generally escalate the situation to the point where I've now stepped in it and started making factual statements.

Learning to stop for a min and walk away is something I have to work on.  I also have to convince myself of the truth that walking away for a min is not a sign of weakness or a way of conceding my perceived victory to the enemy(Amy).  It simply is the wise choice to make sure I don't say something I can't take back.

Mrs. Britt used to talk to me about being careful with my words.  She told me on multiple times that she did not allow gossip or cross words to come from her beauticians.  Running a beauty shop for 50 years full of women will tend to teach you a thing or two about keeping your mouth shut.  I sure do miss her.  She had a lot of wisdom that she attempted to impart to me and for that, I am very grateful.

Till next week, pray that I take a step to step away when the time is appropriate.


Josh


PS. while writing this blog, I had a Semisonic Youtube mix playing on the tv.  Between the fact that when I was 15 I lived in this house and the music is all from the 90's, I sure felt like it was 1997 and I was watching MTV.

Me, nothing to say?

Well, it seems I've made it another week and am back in front of the computer to write my blog.  It took me a while to decide what to write about, at first, I was thinking I'd not have anything for tonight, but those that know me, rarely find me at a loss for words.

This past weekend I did an awful lot of cleaning out.  I had to work in the basement to clean up the leftovers from some mice/rats we had a time ago.  Doing so led me to open lots of boxes of my "treasures".  Some of the things I found were a Polaroid from my 15th birthday, my old pager, a note from my high school girlfriend and some parts to my minidisc recorder.

It was really interesting to me finding these items, because when they were current, I was living here in this same house as a teenager.  Now though, I was looking at these things as a 32 year old married father of 2 kids.

Wow, when I type that out, I sound like such an adult.  It is amazing, I mentioned this a while back on Facebook, but my minds eye doesn't see me as a grown up.  To me, it is still 15 years ago in my head.

Anyway, I digress, where I was going was that finding parts of my minidisc recorder led me to recording some stuff then to editing the files.  That's when I realized that I really missed editing.  In hindsight, I wish I had stuck it out when I was in radio.  Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

As it goes, all the thoughts in my head turn to pointless ramblings.  Things sound so clear in my head, but as this post seems to be leading is more of a journal entry where I'm allowed to write thoughts out that go nowhere.  So there, I made the post, I make the rules :)

Josh

Schedules

Well, I'm a week in and I'm writing my second blog.  It's been an interesting several days.  A not so great New Years surprise within my family has really kicked my brain into overdrive.  It is interesting how little control we really have over our life.  When things happen that help bring that to our attention, we are forced to look back to the One who does have the control, God.

As I realize I have little control in what happens on a daily basis, I've decided to put more control in my life.  Yeah I know, not a lot of sense in that one.  I was thinking on how I wanted to fulfill my resolutions to make changes in my life and I came back to my high school days. During marching band season, when I had the least amount of time to accomplish school work or other items, I did the most, including maintaining higher grades.  For whatever reason, I do better when I have a set time frame to do a task.  Problem is, I am a procrastinator and a rationalizer.  If there are not firm deadlines, I tend to push the task to a later time.

Thus leading me to my first step to do what I set out to do this year.  I made a calendar that sets my time for each night, including putting a fixed time for my TV viewing.  Even though writing something down doesn't change anything, it sets something up in my brain that tells me to complete what I am working on, then move on.

Hopefully I will find this to be a successful solution and will get some new habits established.  We'll see,

There you have it, my riveting first weekly blog post.  I'll accept my Pulitzer at the end of the year.


Josh

New year, another shot

New Year resolutions, are fairly cliche' and seemingly unnecessary since we really don't need a new year to make changes in our lives, but there is something nice and neat about starting something at the start of a new year.

I generally don't make resolutions, but I am making it a point to make 2015 a year of personal growth for me.  Spiritually, physically and me,  are my focus for 2015.

For me, writing is enjoyable, as is reading.  In 2014 I did not make time to do either.  I started this blog with the intention of writing frequently, and as I logged in and looked, 1 year ago was the last post.  I did have a draft that never made it to post from April, but January 2014 was the last time I posted.

I was disappointed that I did not keep this blog up and did not follow through with my plan.  Granted, I did take note of what I said, but just not in a journal form.  All of that to say my goal for 2015 is to write at least once a week.  I plan to find time to make at least 1 entry, it will not be necessarily in my original theme, but something.  Here's to the new year and a new start,


Josh