Flowing Juices

Well, There is a song writing clinic at our church this coming Saturday. I am excited for it. Harold Forbis is coming down from one of our sister churches. He is the author of many worship songs that are out there. We are going to be working on how to write worship songs as a group. I am always up for a new learning experience. I have been writing a lot more lately. I have been inspired to write songs about life, kids and my desire to be a better Christian. I have the ability to come up with good riffs and chord progressions. I gravitate toward my friend Joe for lyrical support. We have written some good stuff in the past. Someday, someone will hear them and maybe be touched by them. I also aspire to market some songs to the music biz. It would be great to be able to write a few hit tunes and make royalties off of them for years to come. I mean, the guy who wrote "Hey Hey We're the Monkey's" is a millionare! Why not? I can do that. hehe. My dream however is to make a living while making music. Not likely, but most dreams are not. I look forward to what new songs come from this clinic. I am hopeful that we as a church will be able to express the call and purpose of God without having to use borrowed worship songs. Bring on the prophetic songs! Bring on the new day without crutches! -DJ

A powerful message

This past Sunday, Scott Squires gave a message that I will not soon forget. He titled it "Hunger and Hope, Keys to productive Faith". As I sat there listening, I began to question my own hunger. In fact, God had spoken to me before the sermon during worship practice saying - Are you as hungry as the deer that pants for water? Are you even remotely desperate enough to say that you are hungry at all?
We have been being challenged to get into the word and learn it, understand it and keep it in us at our church. I have always had trouble maintaining a steady reading habit. I mean any kind of reading... It is not that I cannot read, I just do not enjoy it. I will often commit to a reading schedule, it will last a couple of weeks, then it fades away. I put bibles all around me. I have one in my car, my truck, my van, even on my phone and of course on my laptop. The internet provides free versions all over the place, esword is a downloadable bible program that costs you nothing! Still, I read only a few verses a week. There is no real good excuse, I am not looking for one. I am simply being real.
Scott spoke about "encounter moments". He explained that what God does is plays tag with us. We gather in meetings, listen to worship songs, praise and a good message, and maybe God , through these emotional experiences will tag us. This tag causes us to chase Him down in the word. I have to say that I have been tagged. I am seeking Him out right now. I am looking for Him. I am in the word. I am committing to finding Him there. I know He will play tag with me as long as I continue to play it with Him. - DJ

Back in Bidness

Well, the summer trips have come to a close and the real world has come knocking. I found out that AMR has filled the schedule in Linn Co. to keep from having to pay overtime. So that means that I will be set at 48 hours a week. It is a mixed blessing. While I wil enjoy the time off, the pay checks will be getting ever smaller. I am very resourceful though. I have many business ideas and have implemented several already. I repo cars as you know, I do sound for bands, DJ and now am getting into the property reclamation business. It should be good I think. Looking forward to getting that aspect of my business off the ground. Along with my eBay adventures, I think we will be OK. God provides in many ways. He provided me with business opportunities! Till next time - DJ

Ahhh!

Been in Oregon all week on vacation. it has been wonderful. I never knew that this state was so beautiful. We went to the beach and had to wear jackets and made sandcastles in 60 mph winds. it was nuts! The Pacific coastal waters this far north are quite fridgid. We just put out feet in.
We ate some good food, we also went to Mt. Hood. It is a beautiful pile of rock I must say. Not quite as majestic as the Rockies, but stunning none the less. We also could see Mt. St. Helens. We traveled into Washington state as well. We ate chinese food in Vancouver and came back. It counts though. We've been there!
We fly home tomorrow. Looking forward to getting home. Gotta few repos waiting on me to do them, so Tuesday will NOT be relaxing. More like insane running! Gotta go. Gotta play Settlers of Catan again. Great game! - DJ

Another crazy week

Well, last week was no different for me. Monday brought about the end of my work week, or so I thought. We quickly got knee deep in remodeling our back entry way. My friend Jesse and I tore down the walls, re-sheetrocked it and rebuilt the window and hung new siding on the exterior. With the nice weather we decided to take advantage of it and paint the exterior of the house. Once the windows were taped up, the paint sprayer did the rest. We painter the whole house in about 3 hours.

Michelle had a teachers conference all week beginning last Wednesday. That put her out of town on our 16th anniversary. So on Tuesday evening after working on the house all day, I decided to take her out to dinner and a movie. It was fun, but I nearly fell asleep at the dinner table! We went out to Jim's steak house and ate well. We then went to see "Get Smart" at the theatre. It was funny.

Michelle left out early that next morning and we were back at the remodel. We put a second coat of paint on the walls then did some cleanup inside in prep for the floors. First though I took the kids to the pool all afternoon on Wednesday. Needless to say, I got burned! I have a killer sun burn all over my back. It was fun though. the kids really had a great time. Wednesday night was our normal homegroup meeting in our barn. I know, sounds strange, but it is remodeled into a large open floor plan apartment building for guests and my studio. God gave me an answer to my question of "what am I supposed to talk about tonight?" He did so in the form of a book called "The Answer". How ironic ! Anyway, I read a section about loyalty from the book and we had a great discussion about it.

Thursday came and me and the kids started the clean up process. We cleaned a bunch of the construction stuff up and I started on the floor. Laid a new sub floor, prepped it for the new laminate only to find that the laminate flooring had been dropped at some point of it's life onto something round. This caused a huge divit in the tongue end of the flooring, rendering it useless!
I was fit to be tied! I had bought it almost 8 months ago from a discount store, and they only take exchanges on items for 30 days. No refund, no nothing! I had to eat $100 in flooring. Not happy...

Once I went to home depot, the flooring issue was satisfied by my 11 year old daughter picking out a nice flooring. It was a laminate flooring with a vinyl backing that stuck together. It went down fairly easy and looks great!. My buddy Kent came by and helped out a bunch. For his help I decided it best if I took him out for dinner, so we all loaded up and went out for sushi. It was "Yummy".

Friday came and it was more cleanup, painting trim, hanging trim and one last trip to home depot. I finished up the rooms and moved furniture back in. I had to come in to work that night due to no medic being available to work. Michelle arrived home around 11pm last night and was thrilled at the result of the weeks labor. I was very glad to hear her reaction.

I am on a 3.5 day stretch at work, but it feels more like a vacation compared to last week. We have been slow here in LaCygne, so I have slept alot. My partner Dawn is a medic student and has been in classes all week on top of working every other day. Needless to say, she has been asleep most of the past day as well. I work as acting supervisor on Monday in Pleasanton and there is a mandatory meeting for all Linn County FTE's (Full time employees). Not sure what is going to happen, but I guess I will find out tomorrow.

Next week will be pretty crazy too as my business "OTR Productions" will embark on the largest sound gig since it's inception. We got the contract to run sound for 2 days for the city of Pittsburg's 4th of July celebration. Setup begins Thursday at noon. I will be there at the park from 2pm Thursday till midnight on Friday doing various tasks running sound for 5-6 bands and other PA needs as well as playing music constantly. I have drafted some helpers for the event who will be paid for their help. This gig will open doors to other gigs in the future. I love being the sound guy! Sometimes though, it can be hard listening to some of the bands. Every band thinks they are good, most are not, but is my job to make them sound good. That is all I have to say about that... - DJ

Time out

The July schedule is out! No more forced overtime!! THis means that I will only be working my 48 hour shifts. This will give me lots of time off the rest of the summer. Good thing as I think my business interests are going to get busy.
We leave for Oregon on July 7th and will be there for a week. That will be fun. I am looking forward to it. I love to fly and to share new experiences with my wife and kids. None of us have ever been to the west coast. We are going to go to the beach, Mt. Hood and all over the region. I hope to find the Rolloff ranch where they film little people, big world. They are a family who have 3 little people and 2 regular sized people. Their show is very interesting.
Before we leave though, I have the task of setting up for and running sound for the Pittsburg 4th of July celebration. 2 days of sun and loud music should do wonders for me. I have 2 good friends who have some knowledge about sound equipment helping me. I am hopeful that by doing this gig, it will secure future gigs of similar type and also that it will get me more of them at other places. All the gear is paid for, so profit potential is pretty good. I am always looking to the a better way to support my family. My hope is to be self employed and not reliant on a job to make it. While I like EMS, It may well be time to move on. If I can, I will. I guess we will see. I must admit though, working in Linn County has been pretty easy cheesy. We will see how how things progress. - DJ

Light at the end of the tunnel

Well, the new guy officially starts full time as of the 20th. This means that the overtime will be minimal. While this is good for my social life, it will be more challenging on the budget. My hope is that repo's pick up to compensate.
My wife is leaving for a trip to Texas in 2 weeks. This leaves me with the dubious honor of painting the house while she is gone. I just hope the weather cooperates. This week the plan is to work on the interior if the house. I have to gut the back entry way, put in a new window, re-sheetrock, paint, lay new flooring and trim. All in 3 days. We'll see. Either way, at least I am motivated. At work till Wednesday, looking forward to going home. Short week this week. Only 60 hours. - DJ