Monday, May 4, 2009
Java Jive the first coffee shop west of the mississippi
My wife and I are huge fans of coffee, we like to try coffee shops everywhere we go. You may have read our post on that really good shop in Davenport. This lil' shop is in Hannibal Missouri just yards from the Mississippi river in Hannibal's historic district. We stopped there this morning for a cup of coffee... well latte, before we started our day of site seeing.
This was a very comfortable sitting, lounge like atmosphere.
The owner of this shop is from Springfield Illinois.... and a guy I spoke with at the counter comes here often to sell antiques.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Long time no post
I have more time now than ever and am posting less than ever. Thankfully I am a master of excuses and can justify just about anything. Ok here it goes. My laptop was down for about a week and a half, charger died. Then this week I got a new charger and now the battery wont charge, My dad showed up and is visiting for a couple of weeks.
The weather is starting to make up it's mind that it wants to be warm. So we're doing more out doors stuff as a family. We were wanting to go camping in Missouri this weekend but the rain stopped that. My wife and I are now officially hooked on an online farming game called Farm Town.
Here's some pics.
Me and Grandpa went in on some outdoor fun for the kids, a go-cart and a mini dirt bike.... look closely and you can see that the "new" go cart is being pulled with a rope... good investment.
Gage Chloe Hunter and I planting the first apple trees of our wannabe orchard. Lord willing one day we'll have the land for a real one with room for some animals.
Rissy enjoying something fruity!
Jamie today, we went bowling at a Christian Center in Peoria, we were the only ones there. It was great!
The weather is starting to make up it's mind that it wants to be warm. So we're doing more out doors stuff as a family. We were wanting to go camping in Missouri this weekend but the rain stopped that. My wife and I are now officially hooked on an online farming game called Farm Town.
Here's some pics.
Me and Grandpa went in on some outdoor fun for the kids, a go-cart and a mini dirt bike.... look closely and you can see that the "new" go cart is being pulled with a rope... good investment.
Gage Chloe Hunter and I planting the first apple trees of our wannabe orchard. Lord willing one day we'll have the land for a real one with room for some animals.
Rissy enjoying something fruity!
Jamie today, we went bowling at a Christian Center in Peoria, we were the only ones there. It was great!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
I'm this April's fool
Ok, so I haven't been updating this thing very often. I had an excuse for the past few months, I was working overtime almost every night at work. Well it's spring time and I'm done with OT until it gets really hot out so now I must get back to this.
I'll start with an update on my chickens. I've been selling our eggs just as fast as my girls will lay em'. On a good day I'll get 18 out of them. I ordered fifteen more and am hoping to buy 30 more before the year is out, just have to find a place to put them. I picked up a tip from another blog about increasing the size of my chickens eggs. The secret... Peanuts. I guess it's the extra protein. I buy a five pound bag of crushed peanuts from a feed store I go to and use it as a "treat". I throw a handful or two in every night and my customers have already noticed a difference.
Now to the part about me being the fool this April first. I've been sick for the past couple days with the flu or something, so I've been in a funk. Well this morning I started out the door 15 minutes later than I should have and in a hurry. To make things worse the I get stuck behind 3 cars, of which the lead car can't decide whether to drive 60 or 45 so tries them out over and over again. The car in front of me leap frogs around the two and makes it safety, godspeed friend, I on the other hand didn't want to pass two cars at once and didn't want to leapfrog when the lead driver was so erratic. So for the next ten miles I waited patiently, accepting that I was just going to have wait for the interstate. Well that didn't happen. The lead car decided she wanted to turn... like right now, so she slams on her brakes and that makes the guy in front of me slam on his and swerve to the right, half way on the shoulder and half way in the lane. Oncoming traffic kept me from moving left and the car in front of me kept me from moving right, so I slammed on my brakes and hoped for the best... I didn't get the worst at least. I was in my "first" accident today. I've been in plenty before but I was never the driver. I lost two dozen eggs and cracked the grill on my minivan.
There's more, so I get to work (late) to find out that there has been a sewer back up on half the first floor. I had to shampoo the carpets, which is no big deal but first.... The sewer in the kitchen backs up sending hundreds of gallons of greasy, smelly, and chunky water ( not toilet water) all over the kitchen and dining room. Did I mention that I'm sick. I think all the maintenance men are taking next April 1st off...
I'll start with an update on my chickens. I've been selling our eggs just as fast as my girls will lay em'. On a good day I'll get 18 out of them. I ordered fifteen more and am hoping to buy 30 more before the year is out, just have to find a place to put them. I picked up a tip from another blog about increasing the size of my chickens eggs. The secret... Peanuts. I guess it's the extra protein. I buy a five pound bag of crushed peanuts from a feed store I go to and use it as a "treat". I throw a handful or two in every night and my customers have already noticed a difference.
Now to the part about me being the fool this April first. I've been sick for the past couple days with the flu or something, so I've been in a funk. Well this morning I started out the door 15 minutes later than I should have and in a hurry. To make things worse the I get stuck behind 3 cars, of which the lead car can't decide whether to drive 60 or 45 so tries them out over and over again. The car in front of me leap frogs around the two and makes it safety, godspeed friend, I on the other hand didn't want to pass two cars at once and didn't want to leapfrog when the lead driver was so erratic. So for the next ten miles I waited patiently, accepting that I was just going to have wait for the interstate. Well that didn't happen. The lead car decided she wanted to turn... like right now, so she slams on her brakes and that makes the guy in front of me slam on his and swerve to the right, half way on the shoulder and half way in the lane. Oncoming traffic kept me from moving left and the car in front of me kept me from moving right, so I slammed on my brakes and hoped for the best... I didn't get the worst at least. I was in my "first" accident today. I've been in plenty before but I was never the driver. I lost two dozen eggs and cracked the grill on my minivan.
There's more, so I get to work (late) to find out that there has been a sewer back up on half the first floor. I had to shampoo the carpets, which is no big deal but first.... The sewer in the kitchen backs up sending hundreds of gallons of greasy, smelly, and chunky water ( not toilet water) all over the kitchen and dining room. Did I mention that I'm sick. I think all the maintenance men are taking next April 1st off...
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Romantic Getaway of Two ..... Plus one
So this past weekend was my wife's birthday on the 13th, valentines day on the 14th, and our anniversary on the 15th.... and I didn't do a thing for her! I barely even said happy birthday or happy anniversary. Usually I get her a collectible thingy (willow tree) or flowers or something, and we usually at least do dinner somewhere. I didn't get her a thing. We couldn't really afford much this year anyway, we have to wait a few more weeks before we can even file tax returns, and we have doctor bills to pay. So she wasn't expecting much.
But.....
I did have a lil' extra money on this check from some overtime. So I asked her mom to watch the kids yesterday through today and I snuck her off. It was neat she didn't even know what was going on really. She thought I was taking her out for a date, we made it to the Library, where I pulled up a map on my laptop and asked her where she wanted to go. I had four or five spots picked out all within 3 hours or so from the house. She picked the Quad Cities. We'd never been there before. The city you might know there is Davenport Iowa, the others are Rock Island, Moline and Bettendorf. We stayed in Rock Island right off the river. Our hotel had a great view of the Centennial Bridge crossing over into Iowa.
There was a really nice little coffee shop right across from the hotel called Theo's Java Club that we went to this morning. Cool thing was that all the postings in the shop were... conservative! Like the bulletin board had news clippings that talked good about America and bad about socialism. I was pleasantly shocked.
There was quite a bit of sites to see but I took the advise from a friend and just planned on one or two things. My wife and I both love to just drive around and look at new places, as in places we've never been. We just drove around the city for at least 2 hours, taking pictures along the way.
The kinda big thing we did that took up about 3 hours was the Putnam Museum and Imax theater in Davenport. 
For twenty bucks even we got to watch a 3D show on a screen that was over 70feet high by 100 feet wide. It was Deep Sea 3D or something like that. Worth the money and I plan on taking my kids to see it but be sure to debrief your kids if you do. The show is laced with subtle liberal propaganda and some very blunt liberal propaganda. Lets put it this way, Al Gore would give this movie one thumb up for effort. It was neat though, 3D done right. After the show we walked around the museum, there was maybe 30 people in the whole place counting staff. 
I love this picture, there were lots of animal displays like this through out the museum.
This one I'm not quite sure how to take.. I want to know how they booked the Apostle James to speak at their church!
But.....
I did have a lil' extra money on this check from some overtime. So I asked her mom to watch the kids yesterday through today and I snuck her off. It was neat she didn't even know what was going on really. She thought I was taking her out for a date, we made it to the Library, where I pulled up a map on my laptop and asked her where she wanted to go. I had four or five spots picked out all within 3 hours or so from the house. She picked the Quad Cities. We'd never been there before. The city you might know there is Davenport Iowa, the others are Rock Island, Moline and Bettendorf. We stayed in Rock Island right off the river. Our hotel had a great view of the Centennial Bridge crossing over into Iowa.
There was a really nice little coffee shop right across from the hotel called Theo's Java Club that we went to this morning. Cool thing was that all the postings in the shop were... conservative! Like the bulletin board had news clippings that talked good about America and bad about socialism. I was pleasantly shocked.
There was quite a bit of sites to see but I took the advise from a friend and just planned on one or two things. My wife and I both love to just drive around and look at new places, as in places we've never been. We just drove around the city for at least 2 hours, taking pictures along the way.
The kinda big thing we did that took up about 3 hours was the Putnam Museum and Imax theater in Davenport. 
For twenty bucks even we got to watch a 3D show on a screen that was over 70feet high by 100 feet wide. It was Deep Sea 3D or something like that. Worth the money and I plan on taking my kids to see it but be sure to debrief your kids if you do. The show is laced with subtle liberal propaganda and some very blunt liberal propaganda. Lets put it this way, Al Gore would give this movie one thumb up for effort. It was neat though, 3D done right. After the show we walked around the museum, there was maybe 30 people in the whole place counting staff. 
I love this picture, there were lots of animal displays like this through out the museum.
This one I'm not quite sure how to take.. I want to know how they booked the Apostle James to speak at their church!
Friday, February 13, 2009
A brother lost....
I wish I had time to post this sooner. A friend of mine did a post on this as well. (Click Here)
As you may know I work for a drug and alcohol rehab center. I am thankful for the opportunity it provides to witness and counsel with young men in need. Since I've been there I've made friends with several of the clients, some because of our common bond through Christ and some because of the burden Christ laid on my heart for their salvation. The very first person I came to call friend was a young man by the name of Jacob. He was 19 years old when I met him. A friend of mine was able to lead him to Christ while Jacob was in treatment. I talked with Jacob daily while at work, fellowshiped and decscipled the best I could. He had to go two rounds with treatment before getting a good start on a successful life. I saw him a few times at church after he left. But due to company policy restricting communication with ex-clients I couldn't have any other contact with him, (couldn't have him over for supper, or hire him for work). I would have to wait two years after a client completes treatment before I could have a friendship with them. Jacob did wonderful though, he became president of a recovery home and finished a trade school. He got HVAC certified.... (While he was in treatment I convinced him that it would be a wise move. I even showed him how to work on small air conditioners) This past sunday my wife asked me if the two years was up. I had made plans of hiring him for AC jobs. It wasn't. Tuesday I went back to work and late into my second shift a coworker out of the blue says "hey do you remember Jacob?" I lit up and started to talk about how much I liked the kid. The man got sober and told me that he had died just last friday... I believe that he was saved, so I rejoice that he has recieved that inheritance, but mourn the fellowship lost and the short life that has his. He was 22 when he went home. He had more than 2 years clean and sober, then when a moment came when no one around him could help him satan tempted him with quick relief. He overdosed. March would have been his two years out of treatment...
As you may know I work for a drug and alcohol rehab center. I am thankful for the opportunity it provides to witness and counsel with young men in need. Since I've been there I've made friends with several of the clients, some because of our common bond through Christ and some because of the burden Christ laid on my heart for their salvation. The very first person I came to call friend was a young man by the name of Jacob. He was 19 years old when I met him. A friend of mine was able to lead him to Christ while Jacob was in treatment. I talked with Jacob daily while at work, fellowshiped and decscipled the best I could. He had to go two rounds with treatment before getting a good start on a successful life. I saw him a few times at church after he left. But due to company policy restricting communication with ex-clients I couldn't have any other contact with him, (couldn't have him over for supper, or hire him for work). I would have to wait two years after a client completes treatment before I could have a friendship with them. Jacob did wonderful though, he became president of a recovery home and finished a trade school. He got HVAC certified.... (While he was in treatment I convinced him that it would be a wise move. I even showed him how to work on small air conditioners) This past sunday my wife asked me if the two years was up. I had made plans of hiring him for AC jobs. It wasn't. Tuesday I went back to work and late into my second shift a coworker out of the blue says "hey do you remember Jacob?" I lit up and started to talk about how much I liked the kid. The man got sober and told me that he had died just last friday... I believe that he was saved, so I rejoice that he has recieved that inheritance, but mourn the fellowship lost and the short life that has his. He was 22 when he went home. He had more than 2 years clean and sober, then when a moment came when no one around him could help him satan tempted him with quick relief. He overdosed. March would have been his two years out of treatment...
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Prayer request
I received a call from my wife today at about noon, she said she felt like her sides were cramping. By one o'clock she couldn't hardly walk because of the pain. I rushed home (I do mean rush.... If I was a catholic I'd have to go to confession...), picked her up and rushed back to the hospital. Jamie called her midwife at first because she thought it had something to do with her nursing, and the new lil' one ( uterus cramps). The midwife, along with a few other people thought it was her Appendix. I haven't seen her in so much pain... ever. Remember she just had her fifth baby. It was constant and severe and lasted four hours before she got any relief. We got to the ER and had to wait 45 min to get back to the Doc. They ran some test, did a CAT scan, gave her an IV. Kidney stones. She had them once before, about 6 years ago. This time around was a lot worse. Poor girl. She still hasn't passed them and is in horrible pain still. Please pray........
I think she kinda wishes it was her appendix, so they could just take it out and get it over with.
I think she kinda wishes it was her appendix, so they could just take it out and get it over with.
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