Sunday sleepy Sunday

I am not sure what it is about Sundays, but I was so tired all day. I did not stay up that late on Saturday night, but when I got up to get ready to go to the church, I was already dragging. I got there at 8:15 and left shortly before 1. We had a quick lunch then went to the Sunset manor nursing home at 2:45 to set up the mini PA for the service we had there. After this we went back home for a while and I had to pack a piano to ship out. Then there was leaders meeting and then.......whew. Just a very busy day. My friend Jay pretty much always crashes out on Sunday afternoons. Perhaps I need to employ this policy. I have to work today, in fact I am at work now. I am so busy...obviously. I have a lot to do today, I have to upload some photos to my computer so I can list some stuff on eBay, I have to vacuum the floors a the station, I have to take a nap, then eat lunch. Pretty full morning.

To my wife and kids, I miss you already and love you very much. - DJ

How right I was...

Yep, feeling that dodge ball game today! My everything hurts....Both arms are sore from throwing, legs hurt from running, back hurts from all of it and my wallet will hurt from chiropractic bills. I am excited though, I have a killer day. Me and the fam went garage sale'n this morning and found some good bargains. We had lunch at the deli and came home. My friend Luke came over to jam and Kent joined us later on. It was a hoot! I love jamming with the guys. Wish there were more guys.......JOE! Anyway, did a repo job with Kent after dinner and watched a movie with the kids. Now I am going to bed. Just wanted to put my thoughts down. Busy day tomorrow, church, nursing home service after church, leaders meeting tomorrow night...whew! I am already ready for bed tomorrow! - DJ

I am too old for certain things...

As we age, certain things happen. We loose that spring in our step and replace it with a brace. We also loose the ability to know our limits. I was pretty sore today after sleeping on a lumpy mattress at work, so I decided to hit the chiropractor's office. I see Tim Voss. He is a nice guy and an excellent "cracky prakter". Anyway, he fixed me up great. I felt fairly good afterwards with only normal soreness. Then....I decided to go to the school and have lunch with my kids. I guess it is tradition for the kids to play dodge ball after lunch, so I decided to join them. We had a ball. They made me team captain, so of course I picked all of my own kids first. They were thrilled! We had fun throwing balls and getting hit with them. I only made 1 kid cry and only cried once myself. Well, not really, but I did get hit in the.......ya know... Over all it was great. However, now, even as I type this, I can fee the soreness that I will have pretty much all weekend. It was worth it though. I had great fun. Gotta go, going yard sale'n. - DJ

God in our midst

I worked today with a different partner. His name is JB. He is an EMT and is my age. We were out and about today and he kept looking at women as we would encounter them either on the road or in stores. He would also comment about whatever body part impressed him the most. He then started talking about how he looks at porn on his computer at home 2-3 times a day. Being the fan of conflict that I am, I decided to call him on it. He asked me what I thought of a certain girl we saw and I told him that I do not want to look upon her that way. I also told him that I felt that his looking at other girls and porn was very disrespectful to his girlfriend and bride to be. He said "she does not care that I do it". I persisted and informed him that he was wrong, that she WAS effected by it. I told him that it was quietly killing her inside. I then turned the conversation to the sin issue at hand in what he was doing. Must have sparked something, because the rest of the day off and on we talked about God and muslims, Catholics, Mormons, Budda and a whole host of other things. It was a true one in one example of why we need to be ready in and out of season. I spoke more about God today with a professed unbeliever than with my partner yesterday who is married to a minister! It was cool. He has not given his live to Christ yet, but I am working on him and more importantly, I think God is working on him.
It is often easy to slip into the "at work" conversations and forget to mention God, it is even easier to join in the conversation and lower our standards to whatever the subject may be. I am challenged daily to NOT do this. I am trying to always be mindful that Jesus rides with me in that ambulance and He hears ever conversation that I have with whoever I am with. I look forward to future opportunities to speak the truth of God with my partner while at work. But I also look forward to the day when they know I am a Christian by the way I live and not by what I say. - DJ

Paybacks

Well, I am back at work today. Came in last night for a 60 hr stretch. I also traded with another guy so he could be off on his kids birthday and so I could be off on Sunday. This means I am working 84 hours this week! But I will be off Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Nice! I guess you have to pay for days off that you want. Looking forward to Wednesday. Some friend and I are going to KC to get some musical gear. eBay can be a good thing. It was a good service on Sunday (Easter). Jay Lotterer did a 1 man play as the voice of Jesus kind of in a post modern dress, jeans, white button up (untucked of course) and Jeruselem cruiser sandals. He did a great job. Doug gave the message and it was good as well. I got to play bass so I whipped out my lefty 6 string fretless bass. All the bass players in the house were freaking out! It was funny. Planning on taking it easy today. I hope the citizens of Linn county agree with that plan. - DJ

My weekend

Well, the KC trip went great. We went to the Kansas City Zoo, we saw monkeys, gorillas, yaks, lions, cheeta's.....well, you know zoo stuff. We walked about 30 miles...ok, it was only about 4, but for a fat guy, it was enough. We stayed in a hotel and went for a swim in the pool there. The following day consisted of shopping, eating and general fun stuff for the kids. They really loved it.
We took the kids to the Musicians friend store and we all bought some instruments and stuff. It was fun too. Mainly for me! We got home Friday late afternoon and my 2 oldest kids went to a birthday party.
Today was nice too. My wife and the 2 older kids went to Joplin for the day and Molly hung out with me. We had some alone time packing up some things to ship, going to the flea market and worship practice at the church. I go back to work on Sunday night for a 60 hour stretch. I had applied for a position as a supervisor but did not get it as my co-applicant was a former officer in the military and has more supervisory experience than I do. It is ok though, I am looking forward to working with him. Seems like work is shaping up to be even more enjoyable for me. I already like my job, now I will have a great working relationship with everyone on my shift. As I am told by the big dog, we are getting Dish network as early as Monday. Not that TV is the greatest thing, but try and work in the same building for 48 hours strait with NO stimulation. I have managed to do ok, I have increased my reading and will be starting a new book Monday that My wife got for me. But decent TV will be good.
Please feel free to leave comments or communicate as you like. I will put some more EMS stories on my blog if people want them. DJ

Worth Saving

Well today was a bit more eventful. We had a mass casualty incident drill this morning and that went off with tons of hitches as I am told. We were put on "In unit stand by" for an hour and a half. We never made it to the event. Oh well, had a chance to book the hotel for tomorrow while I waited. I have been told that I should share some EMS stories on my blog. I am not sure why, but I guess some people are interested. So....
We ran a call where in an elderly lady had fallen and struck her head on the coffee table. She got herself up and decided to clean up the blood stain on the floor. She went into the kitchen to get a wash cloth and discovered that there was blood all over the kitchen as well. While cleaning it up she realized that it was still bleeding....badly! in fact, she had torn an artery in her scalp. She was literally bleeding to death. She called 911. When we arrived, she was sitting on the front porch. She was more concerned about the stains in the carpet than her own health. I assessed her and found the loosely wrapped arterial bleed to have filled the dressing applied with blood. We loaded her up and unwrapped the wound and lets just say she re-decorated the wall of the ambulance in a stylish red. I decided I had better put a stop to her art work and applied pressure to the wound. I had a fireman ride in and continue the pressure while I did other stuff. She was taken to the hospital and is doing fine.
In retrospect, I find her desire for a clean house being greater than her knowledge of her impending doom to be a bit perplexing. Sometimes I guess we all over look the important things in life and place too much importance on things that on a grander scale just do not matter.... DJ

Another day in paradise

I showed up last night to work. I got off at 8 am without a call in the night. I got to LaCygne at 8:30 this morning. When I arrived, the crew advised that we no longer have cable. In LaCygne, that means.....NO channels at all! Perhaps it is a good thing. But working a 48 hour shift, one finds himself with a lot of time on his hands. I have read my bible, I am in Proverbs 18. I read a proverb a day to keep it strait. I also readd some in Acts chapter 17. I heard a scripture reading on the radio. They were in Acts 17, so I thought I would follow suit.
I have also watched a couple of movies. I fear I will run out of movies real quick. Let's hope that AMR decides to hook us up and soon!!

Fun is relative

Most of us can think of someone we know who finds little joy in being a parent. Some people I know have the mentality that children are merely good for tax purposes, that they are simply something to endure for 18 years. I do not share that ideal. Today I found happiness in the time spent with my family. Shelden, my oldest daughter had a sleep over at a friends house last night, so she was not there when we awoke. To really get the picture, I must take you back to the night before. Sammy (my son and middle child all of 9 years old) and I stayed up late watching a fascinating show on the discovery channel about the human eye. It was like watching him learn in real time. I was able to watch his facial expressions as information poured from the big black box called the television. He was soaking it in! Perhaps he will become an eye doctor and support me in my old age. Either way, we hung out, just the 2 of us. Then Men in Black came on and we both fell asleep prior to it's conclusion. It really did not matter what we were doing, just that we were able to share the time with one another.
Morning came and I decided to fix breakfast. After waking everyone up, we shared breakfast and talked about whatever. Michelle and I watched a show called "I can make you thin". The guy on the show talked about how we should eat consciously, this meaning that we should pay close attention as to how fast we eat. We understood it and put it to practice. Molly (my youngest daughter all of 7) did so as well. We new she had no idea why we were chewing slowly, but she did it anyway. She is SOOO animated anyway, but to see her concentrating in every bite was just hilarious.
We proceeded to run some errands and played monopoly, then I decided to suprise the kids with a trip to the Y for a swim. Once again, I had a great day spending time with my family. To sum it up, those guys who feel that children are a burden or a waste of their time are just ignorant.
I am back at work now and will be here until Thursday morning. Still planning the trip to KC. Looking forward to that. Good night all..... DJ

Trivial

Sunday was a good day. I was the first person to show up at the church. I have never beaten the leaders there! I had to unlock the door! Worship practice started with prayer..this was great! It really focused us well. We chose songs and just praised and worshiped. Scott Squires spoke about missions and gave an impactive message that challenged me to not step back into old habits, old days. I loved it! Great job Scotty!
After church we had the Butlers over and we munched on chili dogs. After lunch we broke out the 90's edition of trivial pursuit. It was a hoot. Never challenge Phil Butler to a game of trivia of ANY kind. He will destroy you. We then played some more games and hung out. The kids all played together. It was a fun visit. Planning today on cleaning house, perhaps go to Joplin later and do some shopping. I go back to work tomorrow for 2 days. We are planning on a trip to KC instead of Branson on Thursday after my supervisor interview at work. I am hopeful for the position yet content with where I am. Either way works for me. Being a supervisor will make the drive shorter, but there are more calls in Pleasanton where the supervisor are stationed. I guess we will see what happens. DJ

A terrific day.

Forgive me father for i have sinned. It has been nearly 24 hours since my last post.....HAHA!
What a great day. We all stayed up late last night hanging out as a family watching a great movie called Freedom Writers. If you have not seen it, watch it. You will be inspired to make a difference. We crashed out, none of us woke up until after 9:30 this morning and did not get around until after 10. We dragged the kids out of bed and decided to hit a few garage sales. It was slim pickins, but we found some stuff. We are avid garage sale people. I love a good deal. My kids do not like to admit it, but they also like going. They love paying 25 cents for a pair of shoes and having all of their friends say how much they love them. Then they can quietly think....I paid a quarter for these.....
I thought I was going to have to work tomorrow but praise God! A medic from Johnson county called in and picked up the shift. I will miss the OT, but I can live without it.
We spent the rest of the day just goofing off. We played several games and ate well. I cherish times like this, when we can have fun without having to spend a bunch of money.
This week is spring break so I will get to spend lots of time with my family. I am thinking about taking everyone on a 2 day trip to Branson to hang out and relax. I am not sure yet. Perhaps we may go to KC for a couple days. Well, bye for now. DJ

Home again

Well, I made it home. I am pretty tired still, but I will make it just fine. We ran pretty hard for LaCygne, Kansas anyway. Looking forward to the next 4 days. I found out that I may be forced to work on Sunday though. That pretty much sux! I will make the most of my weekend.
Been thinking about the summer time, I am planning on spending some alone time with each of my kids. I am going to plan out a daddy date day for each of them. I know Shelden wants to go to Worlds of Fun with just me again. That will be fun. I will be taking Sammy on a trip too. Not sure where yet. But it will be an over night thing. Molly and I will go on a sweet date. I will take her to a nice dress up restaurant and then to a real girly movie or play. She will love that. Shhhhh. Don't tell em. I look forward to such times. Things like that make memories for us. I can't wait to hear them when they are grown come to me and say..."remember the date we went on when I was 10?" I will love that.
I believe that making someone feel special once goes a whole lot further than making them feel otherwise. DJ

Today was a stark contrast to yesterday. We ran 4 calls for a total of over 300 miles. It is 3:30 a.m. I plan to crash when I get home. So sleepy, can't type any more. I will try to come up with some witty comment in a few hours. DJ

I feel Naked!!!

I work 48 hour shifts for AMR ambulance in LaCygne, KS. I took out yesterday morning and got half way here and realized that I had left the house without my guitar! As an avid musician, it is kind of like being in a shopping mall naked. I HAVE to play my guitar at least once a day. So needless to say, I am going through withdraw! Anyway...
The first half of my shift was rather uneventful. We had some training to do, so we did that in the morning. We then had a call here in town, but the patient did not want to go to the hospital, so he refused. I spent the rest of the shift hanging out with my partner. Her name is Angela. She is about 8.5 months pregnant and I swear is about to pop. She is pretty cool. She smokes though. I give her plenty of guff for it too. Yesterday after she lit one up, I said..."do you hear that...listen..I hear a baby crying....it is coughing too. Wait, I hear it say mommy, you are killing me!" She did not care for my comments. So I told her that someone had to fight for the baby. HAHA!!
I also had the chance to talk to her about my disdain for gossip. We spoke about it for a while and I am pretty sure she felt some conviction about it. She is married to an ordained minister (who hates her smoking too). It was a good talk and I believe God was all over it.
I am reading in Proverbs right now. It helps me to stay grounded. here is my verse of the day....
Proverbs 13:3
He who guards his lips guards his life,
but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.
Seems kinda interesting that this scripture follows the conversation I had yesterday.
I look forward to this time tomorrow. I will be just about home and have another 4 days off. My kiddos have spring break next week and I am jazzed about that. I love spending time with them. We are going to spend some time fixing up our travel trailer for our upcoming trip to Colorado. I cannot wait! 8 days of no working, no TV, no business stuff, just me, my family and some friends hanging out in the mountains and eating camp food.
Bye for now. DJ

My day

Today was a pretty fun day. I run a small repo company and have for 9 years. Today I have to go to Oklahoma to find a stolen vehicle. Jonathan went with me, one of my former guitar students (who now blows me away!) We had some good talks, we ate lunch at some small little place that seated maybe 30. I had quite possibly the best ruben sandwich in the world!! It had bacon on it! I LOVE bacon! Anyway. It was good and the conversation was even better. You learn a lot about a person in 6 hours of being with them in a car. John has grown into quite a level headed intelligent young man. I look forward to spending more time with him in the future.
Had a jam session with Luke, another friend. He, like myself plays guitar and drums. It is fun to switch around. He can sing as well, so I finally was able to do some harmony singing. It was great!
I have to work tomorrow and so I must say goodbye to 4 days off. I will miss you.

An introduction into the odd world of me

I did it, I actually started my own blog thing. I am not much of a writer, but it seems every one is doing this and I desperately want to be in the "in crowd".
Much of who I am can be summed up fairly quickly. I am a child of God, a father, a husband, a musician and a Kansas certified paramedic. In that order. I love to hang with my kids, they are the world to me. My wife is my best friend, my counselor and my favorite person to be around when I am down. I have 3 kids, Shelden, who is 10, Sam who is 9 and Molly who is 7. I love to play music, any kind at any time. My chosen weapon is the guitar. I am a budding drummer as well. I play the bass, mandolin, dobro and the oboe. Not really the oboe, it just sounded good. I like camping and traveling with my family. I am known as the go to guy. If you need it, go to DJ, He either has it, or knows where to get it....CHEAP! I aspire to be a better everything and am positive that I do not love God enough. I will always need more of Him. That is it for now. I am not much for typing. I have hit the back space button more than anything while typing this. DJ