Day 186 ~ Congrats to the Neighbors!

A Reason to Celebrate!

Our neighbors, whose name, sadly, I do not know, had this sign on their lawn for the last week. Walking back from the store, I stopped by and took a quick picture! It turns out the boy's name is Logan. Congratulations, neighbor!

See you tomorrow!

Day 185 ~ Twinkie Wanna be's

They look like Twinkies but are called Dreamies!

 I heard Twinkies are coming back in the summer. Until then, Tastykake is trying to fill the gap. Thanks to my friend and ex-Hostess Co-worker for sending this pic to my phone!

See you tomorrow!

day 184 ~ Bowling for Fun!

notice my professional form

 Our church went to the navy base to use its bowling alley. Only one dollar a game. Not bad. I am a horrible bowler but Karen and I had a lot of fun with our friends.

Throwing a ten pound ball; it's all I could handle.

 We bowled with two "professionals" who are in a senior league. Cheryl and her husband, whose name escapes me now, were the two top bowlers in our lane.

No, I didn't get the spare! 

We also had pizza.  It was a fun night.

See you tomorrow.

Day 183 ~ Risk

Deep strategies being discussed!

Daniel loves games. Yesterday, I uploaded the parcheesi game he played at his grandparent's house and today I am showing you the RISK game he played on his actual birthday of April 15th...Yes, tax day....They had a blast!

See you tomorrow.

Day 182 ~ Blockade!

Parcheesi excitement!

For Daniel's birthday celebration at his grandmother's house, they played Parcheesi. Daniel, the yellow pieces, set up a blockade which annoyed everyone. So much so, that he lost the game because everyone was gunning for him.

The Players

I used the panoramic view  feature on my phone to get this "wide shot." 

See you tomorrow.

Day 181 ~ Somebody's Foot

notice the pink soles...

This is somebody's foot...I'm not allowed to say whose....you can try and guess, if you like....

See you tomorrow.

Day 180 ~ Zorro, the magical puppy!

Zorro, drawing sent to my phone by Sara

My daughter had to draw "live animals" for her art class so she drew a picture of her now deceased pet, Zorro. He was a great dog! Some say he was even magical!

The REAL Zorro!

Here is a picture of Zorro at a dog event. Libby is in the background. Libby went into a depression when Zorro (and then Baily,) died.  That is one of the reasons we got Margaret, although sometimes I think Libby might have liked it being "an only puppy."

Thanks to Sara for being a guest picture taker for my blog.

See you tomorrow. 

Day 179 ~ Behold the Cake!

Behold the Cake!

Because of work schedules, we didn't have a "family" celebration of Daniel's Birthday until Saturday. Here is Daniel admiring his chocolate cake with all of its candles.

Karen lighting the candles

Daniel, Karen and Matthew went to BJ;s Club store to buy the cake while Justin and I picked up the pizza for dinner. All they had left was chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Not sure if that was Daniel's first choice.

grabbing a napkin 

 Before blowing out the candles....

holding the candles

Why Daniel decided to pick up each candle and blow them out individually is beyond me...but it's his birthday so he can do what he wants!

Happy Birhtday, Daniel...20 is  a good age to be.

See you tomorrow.

Day 178 ~ Rudy's Sissy Sause

An Empty bottle :(

The Fonner Family made us some brisket and gave us this sauce to go with it! It's great but we just ran out. Thankfully, there is a website you can go to get more!

http://www.rudysbbq.com/store/c-2-sause.aspx

See you tomorrow.

Day 177 ~ Happy Feet?

Two feet on the mend!

 So this morning in church at the coffee hour, a lady with a sprained ankle says, "Take our picture for your blog! Call it, 'Happy Feet.'" So I did. Can you guess whose feet these are before you scroll on down below?
I'll leave some space so you can guess first before you see who it is!

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Faces to go with the Happy Feet!

Did you guess right? Yes,  it's Patsy who broke two of her toes at home by slamming them really hard against something (No, it wasn't against her husband!) and Barbara, who sprained her ankle while jumping out of a chair when she heard a buzzer go off.  Hope they both get well soon!

See you tomorrow.

Day 176 ~ Church Sign

our church stands in prayer with those who are suffering

Pastor Del texted me yesterday and asked me to change the sign, showing the neighborhood that our prayers are with those in Boston and Texas.  I was glad to do it!

See you tomorrow

Day 175 ~ Man Conference

A full House and lively band!

Last Saturday, Daniel and I went up to North Jersey where we attended what was called a "Man Conference." Kinda of a hokey name but the speakers were very good and dealt with topics that are of particular interest to men who wish to serve the Lord. The worship band was excellent in terms of talent but I confess the worship itself was a bit, well, too loud for my tastes.  You would think that since I was a pentacostal for ten years that it wouldn't be a shock to my system to hear all that shouting but, alas, it was a bit unsettling.  Maybe that's why I am not a pentacostal.:) . While I may not like the worship to be so loud, I do confess I am very inspired by commitment and fervor which I saw among the people.

We got there early so we had to wait for all to show up

They had a lot of sponsors in the narthex of the church and one of them was a veteran's group that gave me a free new testament. Pretty cool. A recurring theme throughout the whole conference was Christians and pornography. Apparently, it is a big problem, citing statistics that children as young as nine are exposed to it and 30 % of pastors admitted to viewing porn. They were calling men to renounce it and live holy lives. That's a good thing. During the "altar call," they showed an edited down (for time)  video by Josh McDowell
which dealt with the subject.  By Christian standards, this video is edgy so watch at your own discretion.

I heard about the conference through my wife who heard about it on the Christian radio station. Daniel and I were glad we went.

See you tomorrow. 

Day 174 ~ An Elevator Panel

elevator panel at an Assisted Living Facility that I worked at last week

Every time I walk into an elevator, I always look to see which company's logo is on it. My mother and several of my family members worked for Millar Elevators for years and there was always elevator shop talk at family gatherings. Ah, happy memories.

As for me, you can be glad I never went into the elevator business. You wouldn't want to ride in an elevator that I maintained....:)

See you tomorrow.

Day 173 ~ A Coat All by itself...:(

A coat, left behind at church.

Last Sunday, at the Jr NYI (that's the kid's youth group I run at church), one of the kids was so anxious to get out of there that he left without his coat. I guess I have to plan better meetings kids don't leave as soon as possible at any cost. :)

Just joking, I think the kids have lots of fun at these events...and I try to include a little "spiritual nugget" for them as well. After all, it is church.

See you tomorrow.

Day 172 ~ Daniel is Twenty Years Old!

The cake is on fire!

 Daniel turned 20 yesterday. Karen, sadly, had to work so we'll be having a family celebration with everyone later this week but we didn't want Daniel not to have a cake so Justin made one...

A MAN CAKE

 ...as you can see, Justin is not the best at putting frosting on but the cake was delicious! Thanks, Justin!
Justin called this a "man cake" given its appearance.

Eager to Eat

We sang "Happy Birthday" but I heard Matthew sing "Happy Tax day" instead. ha ha ha.

Happy Birthday, Daniel.

See you tomorrow.

Day 171 ~ Meeting Old Friends at the Unemployment Office

Kirk Gardner in mid-sentence and John McCourt looking surprised!

The Federal Government deemed that Hostess Brands was impacted by foreign trade so all of its former employees are entitled to benefits - Trade Adjustment Assistance . Last week, we went to a meeting so we could learn about re-training, income supplement, and other things. I ran into two friends from the Trenton Depot where I used to work. It was great to see them again.

See you tomorrow.

Day 170 ~ Pastor Del with the Kids

3 kids hanging out with Pastor Del

Before church starts on a Sunday morning, Pastor Del will stay in the hallway, praying, no doubt, before the service begins. Many times he will be interrupted by kids coming by to say hello and I know he doesn't mind the interruption. In fact, he cherishes these moments to talk with the kids. When I heard them talking,  I had to stop and take a picture.  What was really great is I heard one of the kids say in the hallway, after they left Pastor Del, "I really like talking to Pastor." and the other two agreed.  It's great we have a pastor whom the kids love.

See you tomorrow.

Day 169 ~ Water Pistol

a kid with a water pistol

Today we have a guest photographer. I asked Donna from church if one of her kids had a water pistol I needed for a movie/commercial we are making for our church. She said she'd check it out. Turns out she did! 

The Side View

I needed it to be a small water pistol because in the commercial is about "Things I do NOT want to do this summer." And one thing is "being on the losing end of a water fight." So one kid will take this water pistol and shot it at another kid and laugh hysterically.  Then, a bunch of kids will dump tons of water on the kid with the water pistol.  I am not sure how funny that will be but the kids will love it.

yes, it's smaller than a spoon!

Since it's April, I told the mom as soon as we do that scene I will make sure their kid changes clothes immediately so that they don't catch a cold.

By the way, the point of the commercial is after the kids say all the things they DON'T want to happen to them this summer, they'll conclude by saying what they DO want to happen: and that's "go to church!" 

This is because summer attendance usually slacks off.

Even though I got these pics through email, I sent it to my phone so that it could still qualify as  MY DAILY PHONE PIC.

See you tomorrow. 

Day 168 ~ Five Guys with Matthew

The Soda, with Matthew's clipboard in the background

Matthew had a doctor's appointment last week and since we were "in town" already, we decided to stop by "Five Guys" since he hadn't eaten lunch yet.  Matthew declared that the burgers there were better than  "Burger 25" yet "Burger 25" had better fries. I agree with him!

See you tomorrow.

Day 167 ~ At the Dog's Chiropractor!

Nice sentiment

Libby, our beloved Dachshund does to a chiropractor and it has done wonders for her back.  She used to have no use of her back legs and pitifully dragged around her hind quarters. Now, she can walk!

We found this marker on the ground before we went into the office.

Nice, eh?

See you tomorrow.

Day 166 ~ An Office Manager...Hard at work!

Working and Smiling! 

Pammy G is my wife's friend and, from time to time, I do work for the company whose office she manages. Actually some of what she does is what I am studying to do in my Medical Billing and Coding course so I guess she can be my mentor :)

See you tomorrow.

Day 165 ~ Yogurt!

It's Lemon!

Justin went away for a week and he said I could have his yogurt.  Sadly, it expired yesterday but I still might eat it. If I die, I guess I won't be able to finish this year long project of uploading one picture a day....hopefully, I'll survive.

See you tomorrow.

Day 164 ~ A Clean Car is a Happy Car!

my bug in the car wash

I got an oil change in my car Saturday so I decided to pay the extra money and clean the car, inside and out!
I'm sure my car appreciated it!

See you tomorrow.

Day 163 ~ A tribute to Baseball at the Mall

A Tribute to Little League Baseball

 I went to the Mall with Karen last week so she could get a haircut. This was in front of the beauty shop.
Toms River was very proud of their Little League champanship back in the day (forget which year) so they erected this statue.

The Back View

This is how it looks when you first walk in the mall.

The Sun makes this a bad shot

 This was actually the first pic I took but the sun got in the way so it's not the best shot.

one of the many bricks that line the display

Sponsor bought bricks in order to fund the project.

Here's a video of the plaques at the foot of the statue.

See you tomorrow.

Day 162 ~ A New Friend for the Dashboard of my Car.

a new friend for my camel

I went to the bank and found this new guy sitting next to my camel.  It's everyone's favorite Video Game character, Kirby!

My camel was happy for the company, although Kirby couldn't stay long.

See you tomorrow.

Day 161 ~ Manning the Video Screen at Church.

At the Controls

On Easter, my friend Jim asked me to man the Video Screen for the early Worship Service because he'd be on Vacation...So here I am hard at work.

See you tomorrow.

Day 160 ~ My NEW Textbook Arrived!

UMA textbook!

I am in week number 10 for my course from the Ultimate Medical Academy for my Medical Billing and Coding Course.  We have covered a lot of material and there is plenty more to learn.  Starting Monday, I'll be using this book on Hospital Billing and Coding. So Far, my average for the course is in the high 90's. I'm okay with that!

See you tomorrow.

Day 159 ~ Coffee at the Mall

Stabucks!

My wife went to the Mall to get her haircut, something I NEVER have to do (bald, you know). While I waited for her beautification, I wandered the mall and stumbled into a Starbucks. One medium coffee and a chocolate chip cookie!

When I was finished I went back to the beauty shop and discovered my wife more beautiful than ever!

See you tomorrow.

Day 158 ~ I gave Blood Again!

two stickers for me!

Saturday, I gave blood again. And I did "double Reds" which has something to do with platelets and it takes longer. It hurt a little bit because the technician didn't put the needle in correctly and, as a result, the blood wasn't flowing right. Someone else fixed it, and my arm didn't hurt anymore.

You can read about the last time I gave blood here.  I did the weekend I lost my job!

See you tomorrow!

Day 157 ~ An Easter Egg Hunt? Hardly!

The Eggs

 So our church has an Easter Egg Hunt every Easter, in between the first and second service.  I am not sure if you would call this hunting, though. They scatter plastic eggs (with candy inside) all over the lawn and then let the kids pick them up....not much of a challenge, eh?

a human fence in the background

Since there is a big highway in the front of the church, we have people line up as a human fence to keep the little ones from running into the street.  There is talk of next year there being an egg hunt for the senior adults, everyone with a "grasping stick," like they have at supermarkets.  Luckily, I am not old enough for that yet!

See you tomorrow.