The Famfare

Field Day!

2011-05-17T15:47:00.009-06:00

So I’ve just completed my fourth semester of nursing school. I’ve got the summer off and then I’ll finish up next fall. However, that’s not what this post is about. Today was Oda Mae’s first “Field Day” at school. Brenda and I had the privilege of going up there this morning and watching some of the goings on. After lunch I went back and stayed for the rest of the day. All I have to say is that I am pretty sure this day was set up to try and wear out every kindergartner at that school. I got tired just watching. Fortunately, I was able to take several pictures to post here on the blog. Oda Mae and her friends had a great time shooting hoops, playing tug-of-war, freeze tag, chicken run, and relay races. At the end of the day she said her favorite thing was playing on the "first grader's playground". I have to admit, it's way cooler than the kindergarten playground. Allison was a great sport in all of the activities and she had a really good time. Without hesitation, however, after watching her all day it is painfully obvious that she inherited her athletic ability from both of her parents who joined the band so we wouldn't have to go to PE. :)

-Oda Daddy

Tug-of-War

The girls win!
Having a good time!
There were many bunny ears today.
Looks like she's going to make it doesn't it? :)

Here's the first grader's playground.

Good friends.

Something fun must have just happened.

Starting to wear out a little.

They forgot to say the Pledge of Allegiance before school, so they said it at the end of the day.

Bah, humbug.

2010-11-24T03:51:00.004-06:00

A few months ago I decided not to put up any Christmas lights this year. Not gonna do Thanksgiving at my house this year either. The holiday season is upon me now and I'm up to my gills in work. I knew then that things would be busy and sure enough, I've got a paper due on Tuesday, a cardiovascular exam in a couple of weeks followed by a comprehensive final that will cover all of the body systems, related health problems, medications, nursing processes, etc. I really need to do well on the next two exams. I'm not sure what happened to the 98's I was making in A&P and Chemistry, but no such luck on the nursing exams. On top all of that, my piano instructor asked me yesterday if I would be interested in performing on the student recital in two weeks (yes, the same week as my next exam.) I'm thinking probably not. I have far exceeded my performance requirements in the musical arts.

All that being said, Allison wrote a letter to Santa a few days ago...

"Dere Satua
I HOP ThAT
YOU GIV Me
LOTS UV PReSiSiS
I AM SARee
ThAT I WOT
HAV Mi KRiSMiS
LiTS UP

Love AlliSoN"

(sigh)

and this just in from our neighborhood association....

"Holiday Yard of the Month begins next Month!
The church was filled with residents and members expressing concerns and voting for change in the neighborhood. The submitted logo passed and will appear on all Riverbend publicity materials. After some discussion a vote to change the meeting time from 6:30pm to 7:00pm passed. A kind donation from James Toal will fund a
Holiday Yard of the Month program for two years. The holidays included in the program are Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, and Halloween. Beginning this month
and ending Dec. 13th judges will vote on homes decorated for Christmas. Prizes include: $25 cash, Holiday YOM sign, and a picture in the newsletter."

OKAY, FINE! I'll put up Christmas lights. I'm not promising 30,000+ but I better win that cash AND Father of the Year.

-JT

Gratitude

2010-10-19T19:43:00.003-06:00

1. My sister walked her first "Race for the Cure" as a survivor. She is an inspiration!
2. I passed my Neuro/Musculoskeletal exam on Monday.
3. My wife loves me.
4. My daughter is going on a field trip tomorrow to the farm. (It'll be her first ride on a school bus.)
5. Met some great couples from our church for dinner last night. We had a good time.
6. God provided queso for my wife at previously mentioned dinner.
7. People still read my blog.
8. Music is not my life anymore, but a wonderful part of it.
9. Going to see old friends this weekend.
10. Pumpkin Pie & Pumpkin Cupcakes.

:)

1 school day down, 2,339 more to go.

2010-08-23T19:51:00.003-06:00

Day one of kindergarten was a success. Oda Mae woke up this morning ready to hit the ground running. We had back-to-school kolaches for breakfast, yum! After breakfast, she got dressed in her purple outfit, packed her lunch, strapped on a backpack and went to school. She was pretty excited about the whole thing until she realized that mom and dad weren’t going to hang out with her all day at kindergarten. She gave us a tight hug and was able to find a place to sit with some other very frightened little 5-year-old girls.

After I got home I was able to get some housework done as well as start working on some reading fornext week. I was pretty busy for about 30 minutes when I had to call Oda Momma and tell her that I was wondering if Oda Mae was having a good time at school. All day those thoughts were going through my head….I wonder what she’s doing now. Did she make any friends? I hope those friends aren’t a bad influence. Does she know what to do if there is a fire alarm? She won’t get lost on the way to the restroom, will she? I have to admit I don’t understand why, with today’s technology, can’t there be an hourly update on what my child is doing in school? I’m going to have to set up a parent-teacher conference to discuss possibilities: IM, Blogging, Twitter….come on lady step into the 21st century. Oda Momma promptly reminded me that if the kindergarten teacher were blogging all day, she wouldn’t be teaching our daughter. Hmmmmmmmm isn’t that why they need teacher assistants or classroom dads or something?

However….I was able to get parts of the story after we picked up Oda Mae from school this afternoon. During recess she was building a castle out of rocks under the play ground when two girls came over to play with her. After a few minutes the other girls ran away because they had to go. Oda Mae told us that she realized a little later that they ran away because it was time to go inside. She said, “My class almost left me outside! I had to run to get in line.” This story was particularly funny when she told us about the next thing they did. Oda Mae really enjoyed the “Who’s Missing” game. They all got in a circle, closed their eyes and one of them would get up and hide. When the other students opened their eyes they had to guess who was missing. Sounds like a good learn your classmate’s name game. Oda Mae said that she was able to go first in this game. I’m just glad she wasn’t really missing and playing all by herself out on the playground. 

She met three friends today. “Two girl friends and one boy friend,” she said. Tonight she said that her “boyfriend” had the same drink bottle that she did. Apparently they met during lunch today when he sat down on the green tape next to the pink tape that she was sitting on. I’m not sure what that was all about. I’m going to have to have a talk with this “boyfriend” and make sure that if he knows what’s good for him, he’ll stay away from my daughter. It ought to be pretty easy to put the fear of a dad into a five-year-old, shouldn’t it?

All-in-all we had a good day. Hopefully, tomorrow will go smoothly as well.

DV,

Oda Daddy

Hello...hello....hello....echo...echo....echo.....

2010-07-14T21:29:00.003-06:00

Good Lord, somebody blow the dust off of this blog. Let's see, four blog posts in seven months? I think that's a record for me. It seems that since I've started back to school, my blogging life has gone down hill a bit. I have finished my second semester of nursing and I've got seven weeks off. That will be the longest break I've had since A&P I. I am really enjoying nursing school, but I still find myself thinking, "What the hell have I done?" on occasion.

I have three more semesters left and I'll be all registered and stuff. For now however I'm on vacation! Tomorrow morning we leave for a few days to visit some family. Yesterday we went out to a place called "Splash Kingdom". We had a great day. Oda Mae was so tired, she actually slept an hour late this morning. Speaking of Oda Mae here's a recent photo...

Yep, she lost a tooth a while back. She's got another one loose now. BTW, she's headed to kindergarten in the fall. We are making the most of our dog day's of summer. We've taken her out of her parent's day out and we are spending time doing lots of cool stuff. We make it over to the library almost everyday. She's reading really well and will be ahead of most of her little pals come this fall. Today we went to see a movie: "Furry Vengeance". It was pretty silly. I can't wait for the rest of the summer. We are looking forward to some quality time before school starts.

I'll try to update on some other happenings later.

-Oda Daddy

Freaking Tired of Snow

2010-02-19T23:01:00.003-06:00

Okay, so a couple of days of snowfall here in TX is kind of cool. You know...the novelty of the whole thing, but enough is enough. The weather forecast for next week calls for more snow. There are several reasons I moved back to TX from Ohio and the snow is one of them. I'm tired of being cold in my house, my shoes are always wet, can't take Oda Mae to the park, the city shuts down....I could go on.

Okay, I'm done. (Can you tell I'm ready for the spring and summer?)

Oda Mae went to her allergy/asthma specialist again this week. She has had a chronic cough since last May. After seeing her regular pediatrician and this specialist several times she finally gets an x-ray. Diagnosis..............Chronic Sinus Infection. She was apparently completely blocked up. Treatment..............antibiotics for the next 20 days. I sure hope this works, otherwise I'm going to have to go in there myself and pull some stuff out. I can do it you know, I'm a professional nursing student.

On Thursday I was able to observe a tracheostomy procedure. It was very interesting to watch. (No, I did not pass out.) Also, I helped with some physical therapy and took the glucose levels of a couple of patients. See, I am learning something. Funny thing about learning how to be a nurse...the more I learn and the more information that I am able to put into my brain, the more I realize how completely incompetent I am. There are people who have been in health care their entire lives and are still learning. As a "non-traditional student" I am somewhat saddened by the fact that I didn't make this choice several years ago. C'est la vie.

I am having some issues however. Having a degree in education has made me somewhat of a "teaching snob". I've had many classes and lessons with people who are great teachers but poor performers in their "art". I've also had sessions with people who are great performers, but can't teach their way out of a paper bag. That is my issue right now. What do you do if you your instructor doesn't have a clue what to tell you, but they can do their job just fine? It's not like you can just go up to them and tell them that they are sucking things up for you. I do remember telling a certain teacher of mine that he wasn't cutting it for me. Eventually I trained him pretty good and got an excellent education from him. :) I wonder if that could happen again in a shorter period of time? I'll give it some more thought.

-DV

Yes, I'm THAT guy.

2010-01-28T22:47:00.006-06:00

Second week of nursing school behind me as of today. I've been insanely busy as Oda Momma and Oda Mae can tell you. I am averaging around 7 hrs a day studying (outside of class time), and I'm only slightly behind. I've been playing gigs as well these two weeks. I'm out of town now until late Saturday evening. The good thing is that I don't have any rehearsals until 7 tomorrow night. That gives me the entire day to try and get caught up. After two weeks of somewhat intense study I can say now that I am really enjoying what I am doing. The new information that I am learning is incredibly refreshing and is truly fascinating to me. With all that said, I'm 99.9% sure that I have made a good decision with my career change. However, there are some things I'll have to work on....

For example: Foley Catheters.

I show up to clinical at 7am this morning. Today we began the day watching some skills videos. Last week we watched videos on safe patient handling and infection control. Today, we ended the week with "Elimination Needs". Yes, it is exactly what you think it is. Now, if you know me, you know that I really like to watch all of those surgery shows when they show the inside of the skull, autopsy's, guts...you get the idea. I'm generally not too squeamish. You have to imagine though a fairly small computer lab (about 25 stations) filled with 40 nursing students and 2-5 faculty members. It's pretty cozy. Of course the heat is on because it's winter. Things get kind of warm. So I'm setting in the back surrounded by my peers when we get to the video, "Removing Indwelling Catheters". A 3 minute video that lasted about 2 1/2 minutes too long for me. These videos are produced for nursing students using real nurses and "patients" who apparently are REALLY desperate actors. Yep they do it for real, people. I was doing okay until they actually removed the tubing from the male patient. The next thing I remember are 39 student nurses and 5 faculty nurses fanning me and asking me if I hurt my head when I fell out of my chair onto the floor. Fainting. Blackout. Syncope. Unconsciousness. What ever you want to call it. I am pleased to announce to the readers of The Famfare that I will forever be known as "that guy who fainted during the elimination videos".

Yes, I'm fine.

On a more lively note. Oda Mae had the opportunity to go to school today in her PJ's for Pajama/Pancake day. She ate 4 pancakes, 2 slices of ham, lots of grapes and some apple slices. Oh, to be four years old again.

Time to go desensitize myself to various issues concerning "Elimination Needs".

-OD (Student Nurse)

My Last 48 Hours

2010-01-17T07:29:00.003-06:00

Alas, the time has finally come. I have about 48 more hours left as a free man. I plan on spending them with my family. Today is my nephew's birthday and we're going to my sister's house for some good food. Last night Oda Momma and I sent Oda Mae to her Aunt Sis' house early so we could go see a movie. We went to the only $1 movie left in town and saw "2012". If you're into disaster movies, this one is worth about what we paid for it. ($4.00 total) Glad we didn't see it at the regular theater.

Today I've got to finish one more chapter for clinicals on Tuesday and read through the student handbook. I originally had big plans for Oda Mae and I tomorrow. We were going to the library and the museum, BUT the library is closed for MLK and there is no free parking for the museum in Cowtown, because of, well....cows. The Ft. Worth Stock Show and Rodeo have taken over the arts district for the next couple of weeks. We're gonna have to find something to do tomorrow. STAT!

Speaking of "stat", I got my stethoscope in the mail on Friday. Yes, I played with it! and No, I don't know what I'm doing. Yet.

Note to family.....I WILL be practicing on all of you when we get together the next time, so just prepare for it!

That is all for now.

DV

-Oda Daddy

2010

2010-01-04T07:48:00.002-06:00

Whoa!!!! Only 8 blog posts in 2009. Is there anybody still here? Guess I've been busy. Facebook kind of took over, but there's not much substance there. Here I can complain and it doesn't matter who I offend. :)

Let's see.....since July..........

I got into nursing school and I start in two weeks. Did anyone here know I was going into nursing? Yeah, that happened sometime last year.
Oda Mae starts going to parents day out four days a week. (She starts kindergarten next fall...talk about scary)
We've been combating sickness around here for about two months (or longer).
My sister is an official cancer survivor!!!! Yea Sis!
We are almost debt free!!!
Got the Christmas lights up this year.
Got to take them down now...bummer.
Lost about 40 lbs in 2009
Gained 10 lbs during the holidays.
Gonna lose about 20-25 more starting today.

Well, that's it for now. Promise I'll be back before this summer.

-OD

Eat Mor Chikin!

2009-07-10T13:33:00.005-06:00

Today I took my family out for a nice lunch. It was free. Of course we all had to dress up like cows, but hey, FREE LUNCH!

Oda Mae and I worked on our costumes for about 40 minutes this morning. There were a lot of spots to tape on.

If you want a free meal as well...head on over to Chick-fil-a dressed up like a cow and have at it.

We had a very good time.

It was a rocky start...

2009-07-02T12:42:00.004-06:00

Well here we are, the beginning of July and I made it through a 6 week crash course in Microbiology. I have to say that I REALLY enjoyed the class as far as the science goes. Does that officially make me a nerd? The lab has been my favorite so far. We were able to grow some really cool (aka disgusting) stuff. And NO, I didn't contaminate myself with anything. I have to admit though, I won't ever take another science course during a six week summer term if I can help it. TMI in TLT!

Now the bad part...I believe my instructor had MPD. Good Lord! This lady had about 5 different personalities that were completely random. During the 1st week, I would have rather gouged my eyeballs out than to have to listen to this lady lecture. After that, I think she backed off a bit. Either that or I was desensitized at that point. Either way I'm done now and can look back and reflect. I have to admit, I made the lowest grade on the first test that I've made since my return to school last September. I made a 70! The test wasn't at all what I had expected and I didn't study properly. After that I made a b-line for the nearest library and practically lived there until last night. By the end, I had approximately 900 note cards that covered EVERYTHING we had covered in class. I am happy to announce that I received my final grade today of ......drum roll please........

"A"

granted, it's actually an A- (91 average), but I'll take it!

I really wish I had taken this course during a long semester. I would have enjoyed taking a little more time to really learn the material, but life doesn't always work out that way.

My next adventure....Psychology (Transitions Throughout the Lifespan). It's a FOUR week course. Starts on Monday....wish me luck.

On August 1st, I will be applying for nursing school. I hope I get in!

In the mean time....the family and I will be partying at CITG tonight and celebrating the 4th. Hot Dogs, Bean Salad, Grapes, Cookies, Pound Cake, Fireworks! Looking forward to it.

-OD

Project

2009-05-27T21:24:00.000-06:00

This afternoon, Oda Mae and I came up with a pretty fun project...

Summer Reading

2009-05-21T14:28:00.008-06:00

Well, here we are again. Bet you thought it would be another couple of months, huh? I still have things to blog about, so we'll continue with Oda Mae's education today.

A few weeks ago we finished going through all the letters of the alphabet. We learned sounds that went with all of the letters and practiced writing them as well. Every week we checked out books from the library that would reinforce the letter of the "week". If any of you parents out there are interested in teaching your kids how to read there are a couple of websites I used to help us along. The first one is Brightly Beaming Resources There is a wealth of information from a mother who home schools her children. We followed her preparatory curriculum followed by her letter of the week. We also used http://www.starfall.com/ for Oda Mae to play computer games while learning letters and sounds. We will continue to use these websites. They have been extremely valuable.

After we finished the letter of the week curriculum I checked out books for her at the library. They have several pages of single syllable words with the occasional two syllable word. So far, Oda Mae has read four of them to me so far. She knows how to sound out the words and doesn't need Daddys help! I'm pretty sure she'll be smarter than me someday.

Today we went to the library downtown for the annual Summer Reading Kickoff Extravaganza Super-duper Mega Party and we were the first ones to show up. There are perks for showing up first like hobnobbing with Mayer Mike and being used for "Photo Ops". We'll be checking out the local paper to see what shows up. See...
Then of course, there were crafts... And face painting...

Followed by story time...

Oda Mae got a little scared of the witch from "Piggy Pie" She was the farmer.

Afterwords, we were hungry AND tired. So we checked out a book, came home, ate a sandwich and fell asleep. We are both looking forward to this summer when Oda Mae can start reading books on her own for the Summer Reading Program. Yeah!

Dominus Vobiscum,

Oda Daddy

Oda Mae's Recital

2009-05-07T21:31:00.003-06:00

Monday I had 4 final exams, so I figured I needed a couple days rest before I got back to blogging....

We'll start with the most recent event. On Sunday, yes Mother's Day, Oda Mae had her first "ballet recital". Since January I've been taking her to ballet lessons once a week. She loves to dance around the house so we figured we'd give ballet a try. I found a school near the house that offered a class during a time I could take her. It started out simple enough. We had to invest a little, you know, ballet slippers, tights, leotards, tuition, etc. We definitely wanted to see her perform in the spring performance so we paid for the costume and performance fee as well. As you can imagine all of this was starting to add up. Of course, we just paid 'cause it was our little girl.

I finally got used to setting in the lobby area with all of the other "mothers" who brought their little ones to class. I won't even go into some of the conversations I heard there. I just brought a book every week and got some reading done during the 45 minute class. Parents weren't allowed in the studio, but we could hear everything that was going on while sitting in the lobby. I have to admit I was never really comfortable with the instruction that went on. Only a couple of basic positions were taught and the rest of the class time was spent preparing for "the performance". Now, I work in the arts. I know what it takes to put on a good show, but we're talking about a class of 3 and 4 yr olds. All they want to do is have fun. By the end of the semester I had to MAKE Oda Mae go to class. A couple of times I thought about letting her stay home. She really wasn't having fun in the class. Typically, once she got out of the class, she was fine, but she should want to go. I'm pretty sure the instructor hadn't worked with kids very much. She was pretty negative when they we not doing what they needed to do. It was very rare that I heard words of encouragement to any of the students.

"The Performance"
Now, I'll admit, the performance was done very well. Very professional. A two hour production of Alice in Wonderland at a major hall with all of the students (young and old) from this particular ballet school. Frankly, I just wanted to see Oda Mae dance around with a bunch of other kids her age. The good seats in the auditorium were reserved for alumni of the school, we had to pay for the program that had her name and picture, and photographs and video were not allowed during the performance. COME ON PEOPLE! I was able to get pics and video at the dress rehearsal, so that's good.

All in all we made it through and Oda Mae got to dance on stage for 3 minutes, but I think we might be looking at other options for this summer and next fall. She was super cute mind you, but maybe we'll put swimming, soccer and chess on the list of things to try next. :)

Here's the video from the dress.

Here are some pics from the dress.

Some more pics

2009-02-27T22:22:00.003-06:00

Yesterday we went out to the museum district and took some "fairy" shots. Today we went to the library and the FREE Family Fun Day at the Texas Cowgirl Museum/Museum of Natural Science and History.

There are a few more pics on my Facebook page as well.

Had a photo shoot today...

2009-02-25T17:47:00.002-06:00

Allison and I had a photo shoot today. She actually had "school" pictures done today as well. I decided last week to have a photo shoot with her this week so that I wouldn't be tempted to spend thousands of dollars on some pretty average pictures. We went out to the garden today after I picked her up and we had a blast. Here is one of my favorites. I'll post some more over the next day or two.

First Post

2009-01-01T07:01:00.003-06:00

Good morning all. Happy New Year!

Wow, 2008 was quite the year for us here at the "Oda" household. Oda Mae learned how to spell her name this year. Oda Momma and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. I decided to change careers. Looking back, is always interesting. The other day I saw a montage of celebrities who passed away during 2008. You see these things and you always go, "I forgot about so-and-so, was that this year?" or "I didn't know he died this year." The real fun though, for me, is looking forward to the new year in anticipation of what is to come...

I am looking forward to spending more time with Oda Momma this year. Gran and Sis gave us monthly "Oda Free Weekends" for Christmas.

Tomorrow we start a New Testament reading program with the church we are joining. We've attended a local church for the last 3-4 months and have really enjoyed going. It's a large church with plenty of opportunities to plug in. It is Christ centered and they really seem to have their act together in all the right areas.

Oda Mae will turn 4 this year. She loves to dress up and dance more than anything else, so I think we'll enroll her in some kind of dance class after her birthday.

I should finish my pre-requisites for nursing school this summer and hopefully I'll get accepted for next spring. A year ago, I was stressing about an audition I took in March. This year, I'm actually excited about taking Chemistry.

Last night Oda Momma and I went out for dinner at Texas de Brazil. If you've never been, start saving your pennies and plan an evening for the future. A massive salad bar with imported cheeses, meets, vegetables etc. and if you're man enough go for the complete dinner which includes MEAT. Servers come by your table with all sorts of meat on large skewers and they sliced it off for you right on to your plate. Oda Momma and I both started with the salad bar. Then I proceeded to turn over my card to the green side that said "Yes, please."

This means that the servers bombard you with different cuts of meat until you have so much on your plate that you have to have time to catch up. At which point you promptly turn your card over to the red side which says "No, thank you." which in my case means "Give me time!"

Oda Momma opted for the salad bar only. At one point our waiter came by and asked her if she was done. Oda Momma gave him the look of death and he promptly replied with "Would you like a new plate." :) This is why I love HER. The problem for me at TDB, is that you never really know how much you are eating. They come by with just a little piece of meat and you eat it. Then they come by with another little piece of meat, you eat it as well. Then at some point you realize that you should have stopped eating little pieces of meat about 5 servers ago. Despite getting overly full, Oda Momma and I had a good time. We came home and watched a movie and slept into the new year.

Now we're headed over to Gran's house for a New Years lunch and to pick up our child. I have no doubts that Oda Mae had as good a time as we did.

Dominus Vobiscum,

Oda Daddy

CPI

2008-12-22T22:45:00.004-06:00

Man, talk about inflation. 8.1% increase for the Christmas Price Index...

Speaking of the Christmas Price Index, I am fondly reminded of my favorite holiday joke...Once again, a letter from Agnes...

Dearest John:
I went to the door today and the postman delivered a partridge in a pear tree. What a delightful gift. I couldn't have been more surprised.
With dearest love and affection, Agnes

***
December 15th
Dearest John:
Today the postman brought your very sweet gift. Just imagine, two turtle doves.... I'm just delighted at your very thoughtful gift. They are just adorable.
All my love, Agnes

***
December 16th
Dear John:
Oh, aren't you the extravagant one! Now I must protest. I don't deserve such generosity. Three french hens. They are just darling but I must insist.... you're just too kind.
Love Agnes

***
December 17th
Today the postman delivered four calling birds. Now really! They are beautiful, but don't you think enough is enough? You're being too romantic.
Affectionately, Agnes

***
December 18th
Dearest John:
What a surprise! Today the postman delivered five golden rings. One for each finger. You're just impossible, but I love it. Frankly, John, all those squawking birds were beginning to get on my nerves.
All my love, Agnes

***
December 19th
Dear John:
When I opened the door there were actually six geese-a-laying on my front steps. So you're back to the birds again, huh? Those geese are huge. Where will I ever keep them? The neighbors are complaining and I can't sleep through the racket. PLEASE STOP!
Cordially, Agnes

***
December 20th
John:
What's with you and those birds???? Seven swans-a-swimming. What kind of joke is this? There's bird do-do all over the house and they never stop the racket. I'm a nervous wreck and I can't sleep all night. IT'S NOT FUNNY.......So stop with those birds.
Sincerely, Agnes

***
December 21st
OK Buster:
I think I prefer the birds. What am I going to do with eight maids-a-milking? It's not enough with all those birds and eight maids-a-milking, but they had to bring their own cows. There is poop all over the lawn and I can't move into my own house. Just lay off me. .
Ag

***
December 22nd
Hey:
What are you? Some kind of sadist? Now there's nine pipers playing. And do they play! They never stopped chasing those maids since they got here yesterday morning. The cows are upset and are stepping all over those screeching birds. No wonder they screech. What am I going to do? The neighbors have started a petition to evict me. You'll get yours.
From Ag

***
December 23rd
You Creep!
Now there's ten ladies dancing - I don't know why I call them ladies. Now the cows can't sleep and they've got diarrhea. My living room is a river of poop. The commissioner of buildings has subpoenaed me to give cause why the building shouldn't be condemned. I'm sicking the police on you.
One who means it, Ag

***
December 24th
Listen Idiot:
What's with the eleven lords a-leaping? All 234 of the birds are dead. I hope you're satisfied, you rotten swine.
Your sworn enemy, Miss Agnes McCallister

***
December 25th (From the law offices Taeker, Spedar, and Baegar)
Dear Sir:
This is to acknowledge your latest gift of twelve fiddlers fiddling, which you have seen fit to inflict on our client, Miss Agnes McCallister. The destruction, of course, was total. All correspondence should come to our attention. If you should attempt to reach Miss McCallister at Happy Dale Sanitarium, the attendants have instructions to shoot you on sight. With this letter, please find attached a warrant for your arrest.
-Merry Christmas

"Little" House on the Prairie

2008-12-18T14:15:00.002-06:00

Oda Mae and I had some time on our hands today and decided to make another Little People television intro...

Here's the old one we did with Green Acres. Geegee asked for an easy link...

Baby, it's cold outside...

2008-12-16T16:29:00.002-06:00

so we decided to make a sugar cube igloo. Want to see?

Cookies and the Space Shuttle

2008-12-11T23:07:00.003-06:00

Well, the title pretty much says it all.

Oda Mae and I started out our day by making some gingerbread cookies. We got the dough made this morning and put it in the fridge to chill while we went to the store to grab a couple of things. On our way to the store we happened to see a couple of helicopters; then we noticed another one just hovering over us. When we came out of the store we noticed two more. That's 5 helicopters just kind of floating about for several minutes. I just figured they were looking for somebody who got away from somebody else. We started driving to Jo-Ann's for some cookie making equipment and noticed that there were several people out of their places of business looking up in the sky. Once again I just figured they were wondering what all the helicopters were for. As we get closer to Jo-Ann's there are people parked in parking lots, along side the road and all over just looking around. That's when I noticed some of them had cameras and binoculars. I called Oda Momma and told her our story and she looked on the internet to see what was going on.....

It turns out that the Space Shuttle Endeavor was taking off (piggy back) today from the Joint Reserve Base. It just so happens that we live less than 5 minutes from the Joint Reserve Base here in Ft. Worth which is literally across the street from Jo-Ann's. Oda Mae and I thought we needed to join the crowds and start looking, so we did. We got to see it fly off to the southeast. It was COOL!

Then we came home and finished our cookies.

See...

Yeah, we had a pretty good day.

Dominus Vobiscum,

Oda Daddy

Lighted the house...

2008-12-10T15:12:00.002-06:00

Yep, folks. I've got the lights on the house now. I'll make a video soon like I usually do so you can all see the work that I've done. I'm sure you'll be impressed. I got out day before yesterday and put them up. I've actually got a few more to get up, but it's like 30 degrees outside or something like that, so I'll do it tomorrow.

The grades are in. My first step towards getting a bachelor's degree in nursing was taking Human Anatomy and Physiology I this semester. I finished this semester with an average grade of 98%. Woot! Next semester I'll take on A&P II, Chemistry and PE. I'm actually a little worried about the PE. For whatever reason they wont consider the three years of marching band I had back 13 years ago as enough physical education for one person. Guess I'll be hitting the gym this spring. Just don't make me line up for dodge ball picks, okay?

Abby and Fergus are happy that I cleaned the backyard yesterday. I am too. It looks much better.

DV,

-OD

Oda Mae's Christmas List

2008-11-29T19:21:00.004-06:00

It's that time of year again. We made it through Thanksgiving which actually wasn't too bad thanks to my SIL and her significant other, Eric. (BTW, thanks for hosting the family event this year. We all had a good time!)

We're planning on decorating the house (inside and out) sometime this week. I'll post pics as needed.

Tonight after dinner, Oda Mae made out her Christmas list. She wrote it all by herself. I did tell her how to spell everything, so you can pin spelling mistakes on me. Take a look...

Just in case you can't read it, here's what it says...

Sleeping Bag
Dollies
Pony
Please

Just so you know, she's too smart for the "My Little Pony" trick. She specifically asked for a "real pony that can stay outside".

Next week we'll make a trip to see Santa and give him the low down.

-OD

Open Letter to My Neighbors

2008-11-25T22:36:00.002-06:00

Dear Neighbors,

In spite of your efforts to "beat" me in the dawning of your Christmas lights this year, it is highly inappropriate to actually turn them on before Thanksgiving Day. I know that some of you have been watching the house lately to see what is going on. No, we have not moved. Yes our yard still has leaves all over it and there is not even one Christmas light stapled to the roof. Yes, Thanksgiving is the day after tomorrow. Due to my current academic schedule (two exams, a final and a paper due within the next week) my usual festive decor will be slightly delayed this year. Please note, I am the master; you cannot compete. I will trim my dwelling, post Thanksgiving, this year.

Cordially yours,

"The Light Guy"
-OD

The Big Crash

2008-10-24T07:13:00.003-06:00

We've been busy the past couple of weeks. Allow me to fill you in on some changes.

1. Two weeks ago, today, Oda Momma was in a car accident. Not her fault and she's okay. She was behind a few cars at a red light on the way home two Fridays ago. As she looks into her rear view mirror, she sees a grey mid-sized SUV coming up on her that isn't going to stop. He rear-ends her and knocks her into the car in front of her. The JERK proceeded to back up, go around the cars and drove off! That's right ladies and gentlemen, hit and run.

Like I said everyone was okay. The lady in front was able to drive away after the police report. Our Maxima was towed away never to be seen again.

After a week of dealing with OUR insurance we were able to pick up our settlement check and start looking for other transportation options. We decided that in order to get reliable transportation at the same payments we were making on the Armada that we would trade it in and use most of our settlement check as a down payment on two smaller cars. This week Oda Mae and I shopped at Nissan, Toyota and Honda. Ultimately, Nissan gave us the best deal and we drove home two 2008 Sentras.

I have to admit that I usually don't look for new cars, but I think we came out with an average deal that gets the family into good cars, hopefully for about the next 10 years.

More to come...
DV,
-OD

The Chair, The Museum

2008-09-27T21:12:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow night, I'll be relaxing in style...

Thank you Oda Mae and Oda Momma!!!!!!

Today we were able to attend the Modern Art Museum as well as the Kimbal Art Museum. We got in for free and and had a pretty good time. They were fairly crowded, but that was to be expected. Afterwords we went out to the Log Cabin Village where Oda Mae had a blast. We watched as pioneers cooked, sewed and told stories about life in the 1800's.

Tomorrow is lunch with Mom. MMmmmmmm, lunch.

DV,

-OD

One Last Hurrah

2008-09-26T21:12:00.003-06:00

Ah, the end of summer, the beginning of fall. The leaves begin to change colors and fall activities seem to be never ending. Yesterday Oda Mae and I decided to have one more go at playing in the water as there is a cold front supposed to come in by the end of next week. I think the high on Thursday is only supposed to be 84. :)

Tomorrow is the "Day in the District", sponsored by the Fort Worth Arts District. All of the museums are FREE! from 10 - 5. We'll see how many we can make. Also, at 2 is the Family Fun Saturday at the central library. They're supposed to have some kind of dancers there. I'm sure Oda Mae will love that.

Oda Mae and Oda Momma are getting me a "chair" for my birthday (which was yesterday, BTW). I get to pick it out myself. We went tonight to look for the perfect recliner. Didn't find it yet. I may have to force Oda Mae to come with me tomorrow afternoon to keep looking. Any suggestions for "the best" recliner out there? Wish me luck!

DV,

-OD

The Sky is Falling!

2008-09-21T07:10:00.002-06:00

At least it may be that way in a couple of months. THIS article gave me a little chuckle this morning.

A couple of weeks ago scientists from all over the world were waiting to see the results of the initial tests from the largest particle collider in the world. You may have heard about the 17 mile long Large Hadron Collider in CERN. They are trying to smash super small particles of atoms together to "create a miniature Big Bang". Apparently, they want to know what happened split seconds after the universe was created. They have been able to send particles around the tube in both directions, but have yet to try and smash them together.

Today I read this article stating that they have had a slight glitch. It'll take a couple of months to get it up and going again.

Here's the funny part...and I quote, "The project has had to work hard to dismiss suggestions by some critics that the experiment could create tiny black holes of intense gravity that could suck in the whole planet."

They had a small leak that will pose "no risk to people from the malfunction."

All I can say is, Oops!

What's going to happen in 2-3 months when they get this thing going again? If you see the earth imploding on itself around Thanksgiving, give me a call wont you? I want to watch....

DV,

-OD

New Goals

2008-09-18T21:56:00.003-06:00

Okay, I guess it's time to come out with it. What have I been doing the last month or so? Well, after some serious consideration, I've decided to go back to school (again) to obtain another degree. (Trust me when I tell you I had to really think about this one. I have two degrees already)

A while back I had a pretty rough audition for a position that I really wanted. Worked my butt off. Didn't get it. Was left with a pretty bad taste in my mouth (so-to-speak) because of the whole music business. I decided to get out and look for other opportunities. I tried photography, something I really enjoy. Thought about genealogy, something I'm very interested in. After a lot of practice and thought about careers I came up with this scenario... "Same song, different verse." It's still in the arts. Still freelance. Still self-employed. Still subjective to what other people think.

I decided to go a different route....

Back in the days when I was deciding what to do with my life I really enjoyed two things: Music and Science

I chose to go with what I knew I enjoyed and truly loved doing and what I knew I was already good at. I don't regret this decision one single bit! But, it's time now to try something else. Life it too short to limit yourself. I would like to see what life is like on the non-subjective side of things; "Right vs. Wrong" as opposed to "Well that's one way you can do it, but here's what I like...."

I loved Biology back in high school and was in the honors program. My HS counselor told me that I couldn't continue in the honors program after that due to my math grades (B's). I was pretty unsure of my "smartness" after that. FRACKING LOSER!

To make a long story not so long....I've decided to try getting into nursing school. I have just a few prerequisites (mostly science classes) before I can apply. In a couple of years I can get a job anywhere in the country at a starting salary that I have only dreamed about in the music business.

That being said...time to go study "The Tissue Level of Organization"

DV,
OD

My Grade

2008-09-15T14:21:00.002-06:00

Hello All,

I know it's been a while, but I just wanted everyone to know that I just received a 96/100 on my first exam in Anatomy and Physiology I.

I know that I should be pretty happy with this score, but I'll just put it out there..... I WAS ROBBED! If this exam had been essay or fill in the blank, I would have gotten all of my points. The the multiple choice, guess the right answer questions were worded poorly. I think I'm going to demand a recount. There was probably some kind of "chad" loose in the grading machine. I'll let you know how things turn out.

Dominus Vobiscum,

-Oda Daddy

Strangly Entertaining

2008-07-12T06:54:00.001-06:00

I find myself oddly entertained by this guy.

The President Song Updated...

2008-07-04T20:12:00.001-06:00

Today Oda Mae wanted to wish everyone a happy 4th of July! Here is the latest version of "The President Song".

Happy Independence Day!

2008-07-04T15:52:00.003-06:00

This morning I played an interesting gig. It was a small orchestra for an outdoor Citizenship Ceremony. 131 people from all over the world became American citizens today in the small town of Keene. After what I am sure has been years of trials for each of these individuals, all they had to do today was to take an oath of citizenship which included renouncing all ties to their home countries.

It makes you think a little. We worry about the high gas prices, the cost of goods on the rise, health care, what crazy politician is going to be leading our country in the next few months and all of the other things that we consider important. However, we must remember that there are people all over the world that want to live here. Why? Because we have it better than most. We don't have to worry about getting from our house to the grocery store and getting shot at. We don't have to worry about the military coming in and taking over our homes. We don't have to worry about what other people think when we walk into any particular place of worship. These are the things that we should be thankful for.

So many others want what we have. As a country, we certainly need to learn how to humble ourselves in the face of the rest of the world and be thankful for all that we have.

BTW: Happy July 4th Nonchalant Savant! I'll set off some fireworks in your honor tonight.

DV

-OD

We've been busy...

2008-06-28T05:16:00.005-06:00

It started out a pretty normal week, but it kind of snowballed on us.

Thursday morning was the Ladybug Lady at the library. Oda Mae and I had to go check her out. Did you know that ladybugs come in fun different colors like red, yellow, green, orange, purple and blue? Neither did I. They can also get very large; we're talking as big as your head large. Imagine having something like that fly onto your arm while your walking around in the garden! At the end of the presentation we all got to go outside and get a handful of ladybugs to "set free". There are 3 things that are sure to happen when you have about 1000 ladybugs and 50 little kids.
1. The ladybugs will tickle.
2. The ladybugs will go up your nose.
3. The ladybugs will get squashed when all the kids go back into the library.

Thursday night was our first monthly "Family Movie Night". Last summer the local movie theatre had a free kids movie once a week. I had been looking around for the same thing this summer with no luck. Guess they weren't making enough on popcorn and snack sales last year. Anyway, Oda Mae is getting older and can sit through something more involved than a 20 minute cartoon so we were all a little disappointed that there would be no free movies at the theatre this summer. That's when I decided to have a family movie night. We made a pretty big deal of it. First we picked our movie a couple of days in advance and decided on a fun menu for dinner. We ended up watching The Little Mermaid and having "make-your-own pizza". We all had a good time sitting down and watching the movie together.

Earlier that same day, Oda Mae and I made a blueberry pie! Oda Momma had bought two pints of fresh blueberries from a coworker earlier this week so on Thursday morning, Oda Mae and I went to the store to get one more pint and some stuff for dinner. We came home and taste tested the blueberries and through them into a pie shell with some flour, sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice. It turned out YUM!

Yesterday morning, Oda Mae and I went out to the water park for a little morning swim. First we had to make our way to two different stores to get her a new swimming suit. (She left her other one at GeeGee's house.) Here's the kicker though...Maybe I'm just old and not very in with the times, but the first store we went to didn't have any one piece suits in her size. The only swim suits I could find were bikini style. It's possible that they were sold out, but for some reason I doubt it. MY DAUGHTER IS ONLY 3! Why would I want her to wear something like that?

RANT:
Why does a toddler girl (or any girl for that matter under the age of 16) need to wear anything other than a single piece bathing suit? I figure I'll try my best to teach Oda Mae to be modest when it comes to her clothing. When she is old enough to make educated and informed decisions about society (at least age 29) then she can dress however she wants. Until then, all of her flighty friends can just keep their mouths shut about how UNcool her dad is.
END RANT

We went to another store and Oda Mae found a nice little "stripy" one piece (with a whole in the back) that she got to pick out herself. Then we went to the water park and played sea monster for about an hour and a half. That was fun.

Yesterday evening we went out to the Concerts in the Garden to see the "Super Awesome Laser Spectacular". The laser show was really good this year. The fireworks were great and we had a great time listening to themes from Superman, Spider Man, Star Wars and others. The snacks were also very good and provided by my sister, nephew and his friend.

This morning we are headed over to Gran's house for haircuts. The whole family is getting trimmed today. Then we're off to drop off Oda Mae at Sis' house for a fun evening of movies and junk food while Oda Momma and I go to a friends wedding tonight.

So that's all we're up to. Just hanging out.

DV

-OD

Free Book!

2008-06-24T18:36:00.003-06:00

Oda Mae and I went to the library today for story time. We decided to get there early today 'cause we were tired and wanted to go home for lunch and quiet time ASAP.

Today was Bug day and we read stories about Bugs! As we left, the librarians had a special treat for everyone. We got a free copy of "A Bug's Live: Flik the Inventor".

We love books around here. Oda Mae is doing very well in our "One Year Toward's Reading" program. She knows about 80% of her letter sounds and is starting to sound out words. She'll be reading "War and Peace" before you know it. The beginning reader books we check out from the library are helping quite a lot. They have simple words that repeat a lot. We work on the word at first by sounding it out then I make her read it every time it comes up in the book. We also have flash cards that we do every week. Each week we work on a new letter; this week is G. She has 6 or seven cards with words that start with the letter of the week and a picture on the back. Some of the words are pretty complex and some are easy, but she knows how they start.

We've started working on the next next 6 presidents in the President Song. She'll know them as soon as I actually finish the song!

-OD

Raising Her Right

2008-06-08T20:48:00.003-06:00

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while......

Several days ago I was "assisting" Oda Mae in the bathroom. I think mainly, I was just waiting for her to finish so that I could go. That's the problem with a 1 bathroom house. Especially when you're the only guy with two females. [We're moving before she becomes a teenager!]

Let me preface by saying that Oda Mae is somewhat fascinated by the fact that sometimes Daddy stands up to go potty and sometimes he sits down. Just this morning, she was sitting at the table eating her breakfast when I told her that I would be right back, that I had to go potty. She quickly responded with, "Are you going to stand up or sit down?" When I didn't answer her she proceeded to yell her question while I was taking care of business getting louder every time I did not answer her.

Anyway, after she had finished going to the potty I told her that I had to go. She of course asked me if I was going to stand up or sit down. I told her that I was going to stand up. She promptly said that she would get the potty ready for me and proceeded to raise the lid. :)

I think this should be one of my rewards for staying at home to raise my child. The lid of the potty should be raised by every female after they finish. Stay-At-Home-Dads.....UNITE!

DV,

OD

Abducted

2008-06-06T05:14:00.006-06:00

Sorry for not being around much the last month, I was abducted by aliens. I'm back now and everything seems to be doing well except for the occasional unexplained visions and sharp pain just to the right of my left nostril.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
A while back I told you that Oda Mae would probably start asking the dreaded "Why?" question. So be it..... It's just about to start driving me insane. I figure maybe it'll stop if I start giving long drawn out answers. Surely she stop asking "Why?" if she knows she going to get a complete 1 hour rambling lecture in the process.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, we went to South Dakota a few weeks ago. I didn't want to let cyberspace know about it until after we got back. Burglars and stuff, you know.... We had a great car trip in the Armada. We stopped whenever/wherever we wanted, had the cooler loaded, ipods charged and a couple of grandmas in the back. We drove a leisurely pace and made the trip in a couple of days. We didn't really see any major tourist sites, but I did get to make my way through some new states. We went through Oklahoma (been there), Kansas (never been there), Nebraska (never been there), Iowa (never been there), South Dakota (never been there, and Missouri (been there).

I always enjoy going through Oklahoma. I try to imagine buffalo roaming the land with indians just over the ridge. A lot of my ancestors lived in Oklahoma back in the late 1800's as well. While I didn't get to do any research this time around It's still fun to see some of the area where they lived.

Kansas is kind of nice. You can't go through Kansas and not think about the Wizard of Oz. We were pretty watchful of tornados. I tried to get the fam to let me go to the Wizard of Oz museums, but NOoooooooo, they didn't want to go 4 hours out of the way just to see some ruby slippers. Maybe next time.

I kind of zoned out in Nebraska. There's really not much there except cows and a long stretch of highway................

I have to admit that I really can't count Iowa because we were only in the very tip of the state as we got near Vermillion, SD. We did spend the night there however. :)

In South Dakota we got to attend my brother-in-law's graduation at The University of South Dakota. It rained a lot, but fortunately the ceremony was in the "Dakota Dome". It was a relatively small group and we made it to lunch at "The Roadhouse" before becoming famished. I have to say the food was GREAT! I'd go back to SD just to eat there.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

You might have noticed that the header is gone from the top of my blog. Do not try to adjust your screen. It's the aliens.....they've taken over. I'll try to combat that in a couple of days.

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I started putting our books on LibraryThing the other day. You can check them out over there to the left. Looks like I've used up my "free" space with 200 books. I might have to splurge for the lifetime membership of $25.00 so that I can put as many books up as I want.

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Congrats to my sister! She gets to start her ONE job on Monday. The last 4 years she's been working 2 jobs (7 days a week) and going to school at the same time. As of next week, we have a weekend babysitter again! Woo Hoo!

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Oda Mae said "damn" the other day. Actually, she said, "Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn.....". I asked her where she learned that word, and she didn't say anything. That's probably a good thing. I'm gonna have to turn up the music when we're driving around in traffic!

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We're off to day one at the water park today. Hopefully it won't be as rainy this year as it was last year. We are all hoping to get pretty water logged by the end of the summer. I gotta go find some lunch stuff, so I'll blog to you later.....

Dominus Vobiscum!

-OD

AREA 365-65

2008-05-14T20:33:00.001-06:00

Laundry, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-64

2008-05-13T19:52:00.003-06:00

Down the Slide, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-63

2008-05-12T19:52:00.000-06:00

Toe Talent, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-62

2008-05-11T14:14:00.001-06:00

Micky D's, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-61

2008-05-10T14:14:00.001-06:00

USA, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-60

2008-05-09T14:13:00.001-06:00

Looking Up, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-59

2008-05-08T14:13:00.001-06:00

Headed North, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-58

2008-05-07T14:12:00.001-06:00

Running Out of Room, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-57

2008-05-06T14:12:00.001-06:00

Balance, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-56

2008-05-05T13:28:00.001-06:00

IP 47: Warm Cookies, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-55

2008-05-04T14:32:00.000-06:00

Reading in Bed, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-54

2008-05-03T13:27:00.000-06:00

Mutes, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-53

2008-05-02T13:26:00.000-06:00

Lots of Baby Ducks, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-52

2008-05-01T21:54:00.001-06:00

Big Jake, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

Ahhh, Look. I got a letter from Stella....

2008-04-30T10:07:00.002-06:00

I received this e-mail today from a poor lady who is going to die. She apparently is going to leave me $5,000,000.00. Wow! That is so nice of her to think of little ol' me in her time of passing.

Here is the letter...

"FROM : MRS STELLA TRICIA COLLINS

MY DEAR BELOVEN ONE IN CHRIST I AM THE ABOVE NAMED PERSON FROM ABIDJAN THE CAPITAL OF IVORY COAST. I AM MARRIED TO LATE TOM COLLINS OF BLESSED MEMORY WHO WORKED WITH KUWAIT EMBASSY IN ABIDJAN FOR NINE YEARS BEFORE HE DIED IN THE YEAR 2005. WE WERE MARRIED FOR ELEVEN YEARS WITHOUT A CHILD. HE DIED AFTER A BRIEFILLNESS THAT LASTED FOR ONLY FOUR DAYS.BEFORE HIS DEATH WE WERE BOTH VERY BORN AGAIN CHRISTAINS. HIS SUDEN DEATH RISE MY BLOOD PRESURE WHICH NOW LEAD TO MY STROKE DESPITE MY FORMAL CANCER FIBROID AND TUMOUR WHICH I USE TO SOFFER WHEN HE WAS ALIFE .

WHEN MY LATE HUSBAND WAS ALIVE HE DEPOSITED THE SUM OF ($5.MILLION U.S. DOLLARS) WITH ONE OF THE COMMERCIAL BANK HERE IN ABIDJAN.PRESENTLY, THIS MONEY IS STILL WITH THE BANK.RECENTLY,MY DOCTOR TOLD ME THAT I WOULD NOT LAST FOR THE NEXT THREE MONTHS DUE TO THOSE PROBLEMS. THOUGH WHAT DISTURBS ME MOST IS MY STROKE SICKNESS. HAVING KNOWN MY CONDITION I DECIDED TO DONATE THIS FUND TO EITHER A CHRISTAINS ORGANISATION OR CHRISTAINS INDIVIDUAL THAT WILL UTILIZE THIS MONEY THE WAY I AM GOING TO INSTRUCT HERE

(1).I WANT YOU TO USE THIS MONEY IN ALL SINCERERITY TO FUND CHURCHES, ORPHANAGES,WIDOWS AND ALSO PROPAGATING THE WORD OF GOD AND TO ENSURE THAT THE SOCIETY UPHOLDS THE VIEWS AND BELIEFS OF THE HOLY BIBLE. THE HOLY BIBLE EMPHASIZED SO MUCH ON GOD GOODNESS AND THIS HAS ENCOURAGED ME TO TAKE THIS BOLD STEP. I TOOK THIS DECISION BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE ANY CHILD THAT WILL INHERIT THIS MONEY.I DON'T WANT A SITUATION WHERE THIS MONEY WILL BE USED IN AN UNHOLY MANNER. HENCE THE REASON FOR TAKING THIS BOLD DECISION.

I KNOW THAT AFTER DEATH I WILL BE WITH GOD THE MOST HOLLY AND THE MOST MERCIFUL.AS SOON AS I RECEIVE YOUR REPLY WITH YOUR FULL NAME AND ADDRESS,SHALL FORWARD TO YOU THE CONTACT OF THE BANK. I WILL ALSO ISSUE YOU A LETTER OF AUTHORITY THAT WILL PROVE YOU AS THE ORIGINAL- BENEFICIARY OF THIS FUND. I WANT YOU AND THE RELIGHON COMMUNITY WHERE YOU RESIDE TO ALWAYS PRAY FOR ME. MY HAPPINESS IS THAT I LIVED A LIFE OF A TRUE DEVOTED CHILD OF GOD WORTHY OF EMULATION. WHOEVER THAT WANTS TO SERVE THE GOD MUST SERVE HIM IN TRUTH AND IN FAIRNESS.LEASE ALWAYS BE PRAYERFUL ALL THROUGH YOUR LIFE.ANY DELAY IN YOUR REPLY WILL GIVE ME ROOM THINKING OF LOOKING FOR ANOTHER PERSON.

UNTIL I HEAR FROM YOU, MY DREAMS WILL REST SQUARELY ON YOUR SHOULDERS.MAY THE ALMIGHTY GOD CONTINUE TO GUIDE AND PROTECT YOU.

REGARDS,YOUR SISTER FROM : MRS STELLA.T.COLLINS"

LOSER!!!!!!!!! Learn to spell when you send spam!

-OD

AREA 365-51

2008-04-30T05:36:00.000-06:00

BW Flower 3, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-50

2008-04-29T21:37:00.001-06:00

Oda Sleeping, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-49

2008-04-28T20:31:00.001-06:00

Cars, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-48

2008-04-27T22:23:00.001-06:00

My Jammies, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-47

2008-04-26T07:34:00.000-06:00

Got Tickets?, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-46

2008-04-25T21:56:00.001-06:00

Sunset Silhouette, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

The Car is Fixed....

2008-04-25T09:08:00.002-06:00

Got my car back the same day it went in. Turns out that it was just a sensor of some sort in the transmission. Not the transmission itself thank goodness.

I got a thing cut off of my neck yesterday. That was fun. No, it wasn't my head. Quite possibly a second head trying to come in, but not my main head. I have a couple of stitches and if anybody wants to see I'll post a pic, but don't feel obligated; it's kind of gross.

Oda Mae and I are trying to decide what to do today. Maybe we'll go to the stockyards to see what's going on there. Who knows....

BTW, if you're wondering what we do everyday, make sure that you click on the picture of the day to read the comments I make. It's pretty insightful.

DV,

-OD

AREA 365-45

2008-04-24T09:07:00.000-06:00

Hanging On, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-44

2008-04-23T09:06:00.000-06:00

Momma and Allison, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-43

2008-04-22T09:06:00.000-06:00

Street Dancer, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

The Weekend and a 3-Year-Old

2008-04-21T11:13:00.003-06:00

Hello all,

I've been meaning to put up an actually blog post, but have just been a little busy. Never-the-less, here it is. This weekend was an Abilene weekend for me, so I was able to get away for a couple of days. I was able to stay overnight on Thursday night this time because GeeGee was keeping Oda Mae on Friday. I decided to do a little bit of genealogy work Friday so I figured I'd get up early and head to west Texas. I left Abilene at 5am and headed for Odessa. While there I had just enough time to get some tombstone pictures and make my way over to the county library. I didn't really find anything other than the tombstone pics, but it was fun searching for a couple of hours. When I finished, I had just enough time to drive to Kermit and check out the cemetery there. I was able to get all of the pictures I needed just before I had to make my way back to Abilene for rehearsal that evening.

BTW: Uncle J. & Aunt N. Mom reminded me yesterday that you guys live in Kermit. I totally forgot. Next time, I'll make sure to give you guys a call, maybe we can catch lunch or something. I was on a pretty tight schedule anyway. You guys should come up and check out the Philharmonic in a couple of weeks. We're playing movie music and I can hook you up with tickets. :)

Unfortunately, my car started acting weird on the way back. Turns out a transmission sensor went bad. I made it back to Abilene just fine, but not with out a couple of scary-going-10-miles-an-hour-on-the-highway adventures.

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Oda Mae is 3 now. That means she isn't 2 anymore. "Yes", you say. "That's usually what that means...". Let me explain. The day she turned 3, she decided that she finally knew the ropes and was going to take charge of her own life. She suddenly became her own little person. Oda Momma and I had a little chat last night about what we were going to do with her. It's too late to turn her back in for another model, guess we'll have to keep her and deal with what we've got. Lately, we've been pretty hard on her to be polite, take her naps, and generally not be a little hoodlum. I think that as she gets older, we have to one-up her on the parenting. We can't do the same things we did a year ago to get her to behave. We also have to pick our battles more selectively. She gets pretty upset about anything that she isn't allowed to do, which lately is everything. I'm pretty sure I'd get an attitude if I was told that I can't do anything that I wanted to do as well. So we're trying to come up with a compromise. We'll back off and pick our battles if she'll be a little nicer to us. I think it's going to work. Turns out she's pretty shy around other people as well, (I wonder where she got that from?). We have to really let her warm up to others on her own time.

God, this is starting to get harder every day. I thought I had it all figured out WAY BACK WHEN (Check out the entire day).

DV

-OD

AREA 365-42

2008-04-21T08:29:00.000-06:00

Climbing 2, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-41

2008-04-20T11:08:00.000-06:00

Chicken Dance, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-40

2008-04-19T11:08:00.000-06:00

Jacob's Ladder, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-39

2008-04-18T11:08:00.000-06:00

Buffalo Truck, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-38

2008-04-17T11:07:00.000-06:00

Neon Church Lights, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-37

2008-04-16T11:07:00.000-06:00

Egg Chalk, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-36

2008-04-15T02:28:00.000-06:00

White Tiger, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-35

2008-04-14T22:41:00.003-06:00

My Girls, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-34

2008-04-13T22:41:00.000-06:00

Purple and Green, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-33

2008-04-12T14:16:00.000-06:00

Oda Painter, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-32

2008-04-11T14:15:00.000-06:00

Bluebonnets Take 2, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-31

2008-04-10T22:03:00.006-06:00

The Old House and Goat, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

The President Song

2008-04-10T14:03:00.004-06:00

Looks like I'm going to have to finish composing this little ditty...

AREA 365-30

2008-04-09T22:03:00.000-06:00

Self Portrait 2, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-29

2008-04-08T22:03:00.000-06:00

Soccer, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

esc

2008-04-07T22:04:00.003-06:00

What the heck does this key do?

I remember a couple of decades ago that if you were stuck on a page of some sort you could press "esc" and ESCAPE. But now, I've never been able to use it for anything. Is it just for looks? Are the keyboard people just keeping it around for posterity? What?

That's all.

Hey, has anyone noticed that my daily 365 pics are getting a little weird? Maybe it's just a phase.

DV!

-OD

AREA 365-28

2008-04-07T22:03:00.001-06:00

OZ, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-27

2008-04-06T21:58:00.000-06:00

Sasquatch in Fort Worth, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-26

2008-04-05T20:20:00.002-06:00

The Soul, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-25

2008-04-04T06:00:00.000-06:00

Viking Centerpiece, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-24

2008-04-03T21:10:00.001-06:00

Take Two 5: LifeForm, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

Check this out....

2008-04-03T08:05:00.006-06:00

Okay, those of you who were at the Oda Birthday on Saturday may remember that Aunt Sandy gave Oda Mae a little flower pot with some seeds. Before she left, Aunt Sandy helped Oda Mae plant the seeds. We put the flower pot on the table next to the window and since Saturday this is what has happened...

So, that's quite a bit of growth in 4 days. The amazing thing is that you can almost just sit and watch this thing grow. I'm going to take another picture of it tonight, say around 9pm. That will give this little plant 12 hours to do its thing. Trust me, you'll be in awe.

EDIT: Okay, here are the before and after pictures. Click on the pic for a larger view.

Pretty crazy, huh?

DV

-OD

AREA 365-23

2008-04-02T21:47:00.001-06:00

Zoo Portrait, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-22

2008-04-01T09:12:00.000-06:00

Scat Lounge, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-21

2008-03-31T23:09:00.001-06:00

The Munchies, originally uploaded by jtpro1.

AREA 365-20

2008-03-30T21:23:00.002-06:00

AREA 365-19

2008-03-29T21:34:00.001-06:00

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2008-03-28T21:20:00.001-06:00

AREA 365-17

2008-03-27T22:42:00.000-06:00

Official Zoo Members

2008-03-27T22:41:00.004-06:00

Today Oda Momma, Oda Mae and I went to the Ft. Worth Zoo. We got memberships and everything! Now we have unlimited access to the zoo for the next year. We'll get special deals on food, souvenirs, and promotional days (Boo at the Zoo). This will give us more stuff to do now. We can't wait to go again. I took a few good pictures today as well. Take a look...

I'm really enjoying learning more about photography. I'm using the manual mode on my camera finally and I'm starting to figure things out. My lesson this week is actually focusing on FILM. I had to break out the old 35mm and buy batteries and film for it this week. It'll be a couple of weeks before processing, but I'm looking forward to seeing some results.

This Saturday is the big Oda Party. We hope to see everyone there!

DV,

-OD

AREA 365-16

2008-03-26T22:38:00.000-06:00

AREA 365-15

2008-03-25T21:27:00.001-06:00

Happy Odaday 2008

2008-03-25T21:26:00.003-06:00

Today was Oda Mae's 3rd birthday!

-She woke up.
-Got a happy birthday call from Gran.
-Listened to Bear's Birthday Song.
-Had breakfast.
-Got dressed in a new yellow outfit.
-Went to the doctor for a checkup.
-Got a shot.
-Went through a car wash (inside the car of course).
-Went out for a birthday donut (chocolate with red sprinkles (see above)).
-Went to the library for storytime (Miss. Spider had a birthday today too!)
-Checked out books with our theme of the week (It was supposed to be snow, but we decided that was lame so we checked out books about birthdays and aliens!).
-Went to lunch with Oda Daddy and Aunt Sis.
-Came home for a much needed birthday nap.
-Listened to birthday greetings from GeeGee and PaPa Mike
-Colored
-Had her favorite meal for dinner (PB&J).
-Opened a couple of presents from Oda Momma and Oda Daddy.
-Watched her new Bear in the Big Blue House video.
-Bathtime with Oda Momma.
-Storytime.

So you may have noticed that indeed she got a shot today (in her leg). ....NOTE TO SELF-Do not take children to the doctor for annual checkup on their birthday.....

She actually did very well at the doctor. She didn't cry or anything. She's grown 1/2 inch and gained 2 1/2 lbs. Unfortunately, about 5 o'clock this evening her leg really started to hurt and she was limping around pretty bad. I felt pretty bad for taking her today. I had scheduled the appointment a couple of months ago and just wasn't thinking. All in all she had a pretty good day though.

We'll have the big party on Saturday morning if you want to come. It's a "Boots" theme this year which is decidedly different than the "Dora" theme last year. I'm sure we'll have fun.

Happy Birthday Oda Mae!!!!!!!

Love Daddy.

AREA 365-14

2008-03-24T21:03:00.001-06:00

AREA 365-13

2008-03-23T20:42:00.000-06:00

AREA 365-12

2008-03-22T22:56:00.001-06:00

The annual pigmentation of poultry embryos during the principal celebration of the Christian doctrine.

AREA 365-11

2008-03-21T22:49:00.000-06:00