jason davis

My New Life

2008-10-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

I have juste recently gotten into playing online multiplayer games. One I particularly like right now is Trukz which is a trucking simulation game. Doesnt sound exciting does it? Well there is a certain level of excitement, not that of games such as WoW is for some people. What makes this game interesting, is that it takes a lot of real life concepts of trucking (sorry no lot lizzards) and makes it part of this game. You have to start at the bottom driving solo or working for a company. Either way the point to the game is to be the best, and for some that is creating your own company and making it the best or just being the best driver.

The game isnt just about hauling cargo from one place to another, there are other changing aspects in the game that keep it interesting, although there are some things that I think would make it even better, but its a good game regardless. Check it out and see for yourself.

Look me up once you are there, jayman32878.

What I have learned after 12 years

2008-09-22T05:33:00.000-07:00

This is a little long.

Today, I have been married to the same wonderful woman for 12 years. My wife and I dated for 3 years during high school, it was the first real relationship that either one of us had been in. Here are some highlights, and some things that I have learned over the past 12 years.

Getting married right out of highschool is crazy! Plain and simple, dont do it unless you are 100% sure that you are marrying your 'soul mate'. It's not easy going from living in a house with people that provide for you, to living in a house where you have to be the provider. I think its even harder than being a bachelor, although I never was a one.

Trust. This is a huge deal in any relationship, especially a marriage. You have to be able to trust your spouse, if you are not able to, you have a rough road ahead of you.

Individuality. You are who you are, and your spouse is who they are. You cant make someone what you want them to be. Your differences compliment each other more than you could ever know. There are definitly going to be things they do that bug you, or even make you mad, but there are just as many things if not more that you do that causes the same feelings for them. You have to learn to live with your differences, and be able to use them to strengthen your marriage.

Pain. You cant solve each others problems. Although, there are times I wish I could make them go away, or take sicknesses upon myself just to ease her suffering, I cant. It isnt about solving or taking away problems, its about supportive, loving, helpful, listening. There are things that will come up that can almost drive you to your end emotionally, physically, or spiritually. It's coming through these things that can bring you closer together.

With both of our children, it was a long road in getting them here. We went through 3 difficult pregnancies. With our oldest she was in and out of the hospital, from week 6 through delivery (c-section 4 weeks early). She was sick the whole time and had to have a couple different central lines so that she could get the nutrition that she and the baby needed, since she was not able to keep much of anything down. Two years later we went through a miscarriage at around week 5. This was a devastating experience for her as is for any mother, and I still to this day do not know how to feel about it. A little over 6 months later she was pregnant once again. It is hard to hear that when just a short time ago you lost something that you never really had, and you are not sure that you can handle going through it again. Fortunately we didnt go through that experience again, but we went back to the same thing we went through when she was pregnant with our oldest. This time it was a little different. Overall it was the same situation, except there were things that were better this time, and there were things that were worse. She was able to be more active but some of the problems were more serious than before. In a 4 year time period, we spent 16 months in and out of a hospital, with questions of our childrens health, my wifes health, and the path our lives were on. Both of our children are very healthy, Brayden will be 8 next month and Haley will be 5 in January.

Sacrafices. I quickly learned about this one. I never realized how much things would change once I got married. I just assumed since we were "always" together when we were dating, marriage wasnt going to be much different. Well, lets just say I was dead wrong! You soon redefine what the word "always" means. Sure the first year or so it was great since you got to be with each other all the time, and you are still on the high of being married to your one true love. It started to change when I wanted to do things that didnt involve both of us, like golfing or fishing. Oh, I still did them, and she was for the most part okay with it, but it was a lot different than before. It's different because now that you are married, expectations are higher, not necessarily your expectations, but the expectations that others hold you to. You quickly start feeling guilt by just thinking about doing something without your spouse. My in-laws for the most part expected me to be a perfect husband and work 40 hours and clean and mow yard and a million other things. My mom, and grandma thought that she needed to be the perfect wife, keep our house spotless, cook me a 3 course meal every night, and thats all the farther I will go into that (keep it SFW).

Regardless, there are going to be sacrafices in your life when it comes to marriage. The choice you have to make is what you are going to sacrafice, when are you going to make the sacrafices? Are you going to sacrafice time with your spouse and children to do things with your friends? Are you going to cancel that golf trip so that you can be home? I can tell you that if you always sacrafice time and activities with your family, you will lose your connection and possibley your family; and if you always sacrafice time and activities with your friends, you will lose your mind, and possibly your friends. Part of a successful marriage, is sacrafice. You dont have to do everything with your family, but you should be willing to do anything for them.

Have I ever had the 'What If?' thoughts. Definitly. What if I dated more before I decided to get married, what if we would have waited a couple years while we both went to school, what if I decided to live on my own for a while first.

Even though I have had these thoughts, it doesnt mean that I regret anything, because I dont. I dont think any of that needed to ever happen, I feel that the way everything happened is the way it was supposed to, the way it needed to. There is something about being married to your highschool sweetheart. I am blessed to have been married to my wife for 12 years, and look forward to several more.

50 Years of Highschool

2008-08-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

Here are the best of my Yearbook photos for my years of high school.

19801984
1990

Check them all out at my FaceBook

YearbookYourself

What did you look like in your yearbook photos?

Haley's Surgery

2008-07-31T12:12:00.000-07:00

Today, we were on the road at 6:30 to come to quincy, for Haley to have her tonsils taken out. This isnt the first time we have been down this road. She is 4 now and had her adnoids taken out when she was 2.

I consider myself pretty tough when it comes to dealing with pain. This is one of my biggest weaknesses, seeing one of my kids suffering. I am the kind of dad that when I have to spank (yes i do spank), afterwards I feel like a complete tool. I dont know that anyone really sees it but it kills me.

She will be staying here overnight and then should be going home by lunch tomorrow. It doesnt seem to be a mojor surgery, but to me its a big thing. I love my kids more than anything, and I get scared at the thought of anything ever happening to them. Am I paranoid, or just a caring parent?

Power User

2008-07-30T07:11:00.000-07:00

I use Yahoo messenger a lot, but today when I sent a message to someone it came up with another window stating that I am a "Power User". I am one of the top Yahoo Messenger users, how crazy is that? Anyways I looked into it and evidentally I get all kinds of "Benefits" that normal users dont get.

1) Exclusive online indicators as seen below.

2) Special Avatar items that I will more than likely not use.

3) 24/7 Live support just for Power Users. Not sure I would call customer support for anything Yahoo Messenger related. I hate calling support for anything.

4) I am first to know about benefits and Power User Giveaways. Maybe I will win a purple Corvette with a big yellow Y! on the hood. Sure I would drive it.

Ok, so is this the status that everyone strives for? Probably not even close but hey I am still a "Power" something.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

2008-07-23T20:54:00.000-07:00

Tonight we did our bonus 7th week of our 6 week competetion series on teamwork. We did a photo scavenger hunt, where I made up a list of 30 clues of places in Macomb that they had to figure out, and then have one team member have their picture taken in front of the building or sign for this location. They were given 45 minutes to go across town to get as many pictures as they could.

One team got almost all of the clues figured out but only 13 pictures taken, and the other team got almost all the clues right with 23 pictures taken. The youth really got into it, and it was great to see students that are normally not involved, be a part of this and having a good time. The student leader concept worked out great, and the teams really worked together.

We closed the night out just relecting over the 7 weeks, and what were the best parts. I also said that we will be doing more team competetions in the future that will be primarily lead by student leaders. I had them look around the room and find those that they thought would not make good leaders, these are the ones that are going to be your leaders at some point. Sometimes the most unlikely people end up being the most prominent leaders.

After these 7 weeks I am really stoked to do something like this again! It is an amazing experience for the youth as well as for me.

Teamwork Series

2008-07-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

Last week we finished up a 6 week teamwork series. We broke the youth group into 2 teams by drawing names from a hat. From the very beginning it looked like a lop-sided battle. My team was primarily guys and Susans was mainly girls.

Week1 - Strength
Talked about Samson, and how he had physical strength, but ended up lacking the strength to with stand nagging, and caused him to lose his physical strength. He finally through one last event became victorious by getting back in tune with God.

Week 2 - Integrity
Went through the story of Joseph. Everything that he went through in his life, he always had integrity. He didnt lose sight of God, and never gave up on doing the right thing.

Week 3 - Endurance
We talked about Job, and how he was able to endure all the trials that he faced. He didnt lose sight of God, he even went as far as to curse the day that he was born, but wouldnt curse God. Through losing everything, and facing these trials, he was blessed with twice what he had before.

Week 4 - Honesty
Discussed Proverbs 12:17, 16:11, and how honesty is something that God desires in us. People that are honest in life are treated differently, not always better. Honesty many times hurts people, and can cause hard feelings, or break friendships. Although, being honest isnt always easy, it is important to be honest with people.

Week 5 - Teamwork
Talked about 1 Corinthians 12:14-26. We discussed how the previous 4 weeks had to do with teamwork. Being a part of a great team requires all these things. Being on a team isnt always easy. There are times you are on a team with people that you cant get along with or dont like you, or even that they are not the brightest people. Talked about what it meant to work on a team, and that the rest of their life was going to be full of being on teams in some way.

Week 6 - Leadership
After talking about the essentials of teamwork, we talked about how every team that is going to be effective, or successful needs a leader. Without a leader, there is no clear direction. It is likely that we will all be faced at some point in life with a position of leadership, we need to know what it takes to be good leaders.

These 6 weeks fit together better than I had ever imagined it would. There was an overall good response from students in and after service. I felt like this series flowed well together, and lead perfectly into our bonus 7th week. A scavenger hunt, where 1 student on each team is going to be the leader.

By the way, the team with mostly girls wiped the floor with the team that was mostly guys. It was a great 6 weeks.

Where Is Your Time Spent

2008-07-21T10:08:00.001-07:00

I realized that its been a week since I have posted anything on Twitter, its been over 2 weeks since I have blogged, several days since I have read other blogs. I have had to ask myself, is this just one of those phases I go through. I go hard at it for a while then I slowly get away from it. I dont want to get a way from it, because I enjoy it but I have been spending a lot of my time elsewhere doing other things.

All of this got me thinking. I as well as many people go through a lot of phases in life. We go through phases with TV, music, reading, or any other activities. Think about how many phases you have went through in the last 5 or 10 years.

There are 2 things that I have went through phases with myself many times. God, and ministry. I have always believed in God, and prayed and went through the "motions", but is my relationship with God really supposed to be a phase? Ministry can be phased if you feel lead to other things, but it is too often a phase just like anything else. Church is also a phase for many people.

Why do people go through phases? Whatever it is they are doing, it loses its appeal or excitement. We get tired of playing a game, or listening to a certain type of music, we "grow up". Why is church a phase, why do we let it become a phase for people. Why do we not show that God is more than just a phase. We need to become excited about God, our church, and people. How many people are going to get on a roller coaster if it cant be seen and if most of the people they see coming off of it arent smiling or arguing with one another and complaining about the experience.

God ~ I want to take more time out of my day and spend with you, reading your word, talking with you, doing your work. I want to become more excited about you, and what you are doing in my life, my family, my world.

Upgrading MacBook Hard Drive

2008-07-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

I finally installed my new hard drive in my MacBook tonight.
Made possible by Farm King, they have everything you need from Torx T8 screwdrivers to toys to guns to housewares.
Here is what you will need.

Torx T8 screwdriver, small phillips screwdriver, quarter, hard drive, Mac OS X Install CD's, Amp Overdrive(optional but suggested).

I was able to swap out hard drives in about 5 minutes, then it took about 1 1/2 - 2 hours to install Mac OS X and all the updates. I ended up upgrading to a 320GB HD from my original 160GB. Hopefully this will solve the issues that I was having and it isnt some other hardware issue.

Catfishin

2008-07-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

I went out catfishing Thursday night with a friend and his wife. We started around 8:30 and fished until 11:30. We got about 20 decent bites and caught 2 catfish. My friend rushed in taking the photo so it doesnt look so good.

I started off fishing for some bass and this is my first catch of the year.

I am hoping to do more fishing this year than I did last year.

Time to Upgrade and Backup

2008-07-01T18:02:00.000-07:00

After a week of working fine my MacBook went back to not booting, so I just ordered a new hard drive for it today. Guess it works out ok, I got a 320GB drive for $140 with shipping. I doubled my disk space so that is cool.

I also have a hard drive enclosure coming so I can back up my data from my pc hard drive that crashed a couple months ago. Here are the steps I am wanting to take to get backups, and maintain my computers.

1) Buy network hard drive.
2) Buy Mac OS X Leopard (or wait for Snow Leopard) for macbook.
3) Buy backup utility for PC.
4) Start doing periodic backups to DVD.

I dont want to ever go through this again, 2 computers, and 2 hard drives down.

Life With CPAP Part 1

2008-07-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

Its been 5 weeks now that I have been using the CPAP machine when I sleep. The machine I use has a heated humidifier, and the mask that I use is a nasal pillow.

The Mask
It didnt take very long to get used to the mask as far as comfort, but the air being blown into my nose took a little getting used to. A couple nights in the first week I almost had a panic attack, felt like I couldnt get my breath.

The Machine
The machine is really very quiet, so there wasnt much to get used to there. The only noise is the sound of the air rushing, and I soon didnt even notice it. The heated humidifier is a big added bonus, because my sinuses are no longer dried out when I get up in the mornings.

The Results
I have not really noticed as big a difference (with how I feel during the day as far as with my sleepiness) as I had hoped, but I have not been going to bed at a decent time for the last 2 weeks. I have talked to some Twitter friends that have been on the CPAP for a while and they said it takes a while to really start feeling the difference. I do notice that when I go to bed around 10:00 I am able to get up a lot easier, I dont have to hit the snooze 5 times. I am starting to feel some difference in how I feel, as I said I still get sleepy during the day, but over the past 2 or 3 weeks, I have been spending a lot more time with my family doing things outside, and actually having the energy and stamina to do so. I feel more alive, and I know in a matter of a few months I will feel a great deal better. I dont snore anymore as long as the mask is on. It has taken my wife more getting used to, because she got so used to my snoring over the past 11 1/2 years.

I have only had a few issues with it up to this point.
1) Several times I have woken up to the mask laying beside my head or on night stand and still being on. Sometimes I think I just wake up and take it off as if I am getting out of bed, others I think it may get a little uncomfortable and I pull it off in my sleep.

2)Every couple days I have woke up with a headache, its not real severe, but its a constant discomfort, and sometimes have to take Motrin for it.

3) I wake up with indentations on the side of my face from the straps of the head gear. Usually goes away within an hour.

The Cost
The sleep study and doctor reading and diagnosing, ran somewhere around $3000, which I only have to pay a third of it with my insurance. I am not sure what the machine is going to cost me or how much the supplies will cost me. I am not worried about it, because I cant put a price on feeling good, extending my life, and enjoying life.

Heritage Days 2008

2008-06-30T06:10:00.000-07:00

Last week was Heritage Days in Macomb. Three days of pure over-priced fun. We only went up on Saturday, so we could see the parade and take the kids on some rides. It turned out to be a really great day, very little stress, very little whining from the kids; when we said we are done riding rides they were ok with that (every parents dream).

The parade was really slow moving with about a dozen 2-3 min delays between floats, bands, and political endorsements. My favorite part of the parade is almost always the group in the kilts playing the bagpipes, love the sound. We ended up taking the kids on 7 or 8 rides each.

The next 2 hours we just hung out in the park checking out different things, getting the kids faces painted and Susan and I a caricature done. It was a great day out as a family.

What did you do this weekend?

Check out more photos of the weekend here http://picasaweb.google.com/jasondavis96/HeritageDays08

Word Art

2008-06-27T22:41:00.001-07:00

Its not what you think! This aint no "Fancy" MicroSoft Word magic here.

This is a really cool thing. I used Psalms 23 (KJV Old School).

Check it out, and see what you can come up with.

What's Your Style

2008-06-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

I was thinking the other day about needing to get some new clothes, and got thinking and looking at the clothes I currently wear. I never really noticed too much but most of my shirts are polo style and for the most part are wide horizontal stripes. I also own a lot of shirts that are or have brown in them. Its what catches my eye when walking through the mens clothing section of any store. I wear primarily jeans, except for work I wear either khakis or something of that sort. Only shorts I really own are like basketball shorts.

I have been thinking about changing my style up a little, and not sure what I like. Guess I need to go on the show "What Not to Wear" or whatever it is.

So all 3 of you that read my blog, what style should I go with?

- Tommy Bahama - Crazy prints, khaki shorts and flip-flops
- Print T's, Zip Up Hoodies, Jeans and Skate Shoes
- Polo, Khakis, and Loafers

What style and color dominate your wardrobe?

Hard Drive Woes

2008-06-20T19:35:00.001-07:00

I am seriously close to being done with computers, at least I may go back to loading my operating system off of floppies and save everything to floppies.

About 4 months ago my hard drive in my PC crashed, I cant boot up on it, cant boot up from cd to try and reinstall windows. I havent got around to trying to pull data off hard drive, or the computer to hook it up to. Plus I had my MacBook which I used more anyway, so no worries.

Well last weekend that all changed when my MacBook wouldnt boot. I couldnt get it to hardly boot from CD to run the disk utility. When it finally loaded the disk utility kept failing because of some "Underlying task reported failure on exit. 1 HFS volume checked, 1 volume could not be repaired because of an error." Apples support said to reinstall OS. I did that and it has started doing it again. It is leading me to believe that there is more than OS corruption, possibly a hard drive issue.

Please if you have any idea if it is the HD for sure, or know what it is, let me know.

Apple vs PC Part 2

2008-06-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

After 3 more days of working with my macbook trying to get it back up and running without losing any data.

I absolutely hate tech support, yes even Apple's (6am-6pm). What about all of the people that actually have jobs during the day and cant work on things until after 6pm, and are up getting ready for work at 6am? After speaking with tech support, I tried hooking up my MB via firewire to a MBP to mount my drive on there, but my HD somehow became unmounted and could not be mounted on my MB let alone the MBP. After about an hour and half of trying different things, I couldnt even install OS X back on because the drive wouldnt mount. In Disk Utility there was an option to 'Erase', so in a last ditch effort I did that, and it ran in like 2 seconds and mounted the drive. Finally was able to reinstall OS X, and get MB up and running, but have not been able to recover any of my data, one program seemed to only recover jpegs that were part of the OS X install.

Lesson learned

I am going to purchase a network hard drive so I can back up all data from all my computers, as well as buy a warehouse of DVD's to make hard copies.

Mac vs PC(windows)

- Mac has the upper hand on security and not being so vulnerable to attacks.
- PC still has a place in my house thanks to gaming.
- Mac and PC both are vulnerable as far as hardware, its been proven the past 6 months between my Dell desktop and Macbook.
- Support for both pretty much suck. Apple didnt really seem to anxious to help me since I was out of warranty and didnt pourchase the $250 AppleCare within my warranty period. No clue if its worth it, because I dont know what they would have said otherwise.
- Windows is very prone to getting viruses, and crashes out of the blue.
- Mac has given me the beautiful "Rainbow Pinwheel" several times out of the blue as well.

Conclusion

It doesnt matter what you are using, if you don
- Back up data
- Use some sort of disk utility
you are asking for it.

Now its time to work on my PC, pretty sure HD is crashed.

Apple vs PC Part 1

2008-06-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

I have had my MacBook a little over a year now and I have been more than pleased thus far, that is until this past Saturday night. My wife went to open the computer and started using it, in a short time it was hung up really bad. I couldnt get anything to work, just got the rainbow pinwheel on everything. Let it sit for a while and still nothing. I did a forced shutdown and now it never boots up. It just gets to teh Mac OS X splash screen and goes no farther. I ahve let it sit like that for close to an hour and nothing.

I have been reading in Apple forums possible fixes for this. I havent had any luck over the last couple days but am trying something different tonight. I will post again my experience with what I find out.

As of now, both my Mac and PC are both knocked out! Not a good time for me.

Kung Fu BBQ

2008-06-07T17:50:00.000-07:00

Last night we decided to take the kids to Galesburg o watch Kung Fu Panda. We were shooting for the 7:20 show, we pulled in to town at 7:16 and I wasn't exactly sure where the theatre was.

We decided to go to The Rib Shack for supper, then hit the 9:40 show. Pastor Randy and Bonnie took us there several months ago, and it is the best BBQ that I have ever had. Susan and I both got the ribs, and the kids shared a fried chicken meal.

We made it to the theatre around 9:15 and hung out playing some video games and getting our popcorn, soda, and slushy (no squishee's). I was really close to breaking my 30-day no soda commitment. A regular bottle of water was $2.80, and you could get a bottomless soda for like $3.50. Then I noticed that if you got one of their combo deals you could get a bottomless slushy or soda (2 of them) and a garbage can of popcorn. Susan and I were originally going to share a soda and the kids share a slushy. I decided to share the slushy since it was only 3 days until I reached my goal.

Evening Highlights
Food was amazing, I have never had BBQ this good, if you are ever in Galesburg eat there!
The movie was really good, a good role for Jack Black.

Overall it was a great family night out.

Results of My Sleep Study

2008-06-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

I had a sleep study done 2 weeks ago. This consisted of going into the hospitals sleep center, and having monitoring equipment hooked up to me for 6 hours. The first 2 hours they monitored me as I normally sleep (as normal as you can with 30 wires hooked up to my head and chest), then the last 4 hours I had a CPAP machine on (similar to picture). This offers a continuous airflow so that your airway remains open and you get the amount of oxygen you need. Here are some of the results that really stuck out, showing how much of a problem I had.

There was 12 times I stopped breathing for 10 seconds or more, and 236 times where my breathing was shallow. My lowest oxygen level was recorded at 69%. I was diagnosed as having severe obstructive sleep apnea.

I got my CPAP machine today, they say it can take a couple weeks to get used to it and sleep all night with it. The doctor also said that it will make a huge difference in how I feel. I will post my thoughts after a couple days or weeks.

This is quite the interesting picture.

6 Days to Go

2008-06-02T08:02:00.001-07:00

Here I am on the final stretch of this 30-Day Health Challenge. Here is how I have fared so far.

Deep Fried Foods - I havent cut them out, but have looked closer to how much fried food I eat. Overall I dont consume that much fried food, but have cut out french fries for the most part if i go to a restaraunt. I only eat potatoe chips once every other week or so.

Exercise - This is the toughest thing for me. I get my 30 minutes of exercise once or twice a week, sometimes more or less. I thought that going for walks every night would be the way, but I never seem to have the time in my schedule, or I dont have the ambition when I do have the time.

No Soda - This has actually been a lot easier than I expected. So far it has been 23 days and I have not touched a soda. My goal is to not necessarily cut out the soda completly, but not to get myself back into the routine of drinking it all the time. It would be more of a on occasion thing.

Over the past 30 days I have lost 6 or 7 pounds. Imagine if I exercised every day!

The Call Was Made

2008-05-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday our youth had the chance to take over our AM service. Overall the service went really great.

Our worship team consisted of.
Jesse - Lead
Alyssa L - Drums
Alyssa D - Vocal
Kim - Vocal
Trent - Bass

They played four songs, and it sounded awesome. It was a really good worship service.

I got up and spoke for about 30-40 minutes about Answering the Call. I had this plan to call random people that were there during service to see if they would answer. This plan completely backfired on me. About a minute into me talking about how cell phones have changed the way we communicate, and how we can be reached, I received 3 to 4 phone calls and a couple text messages back to back. It was hilarious and I am glad that people caught on to it and called.

I read from Ephesians 4:1-13, and talked about how each one of us has a call on our life for doing ministry. It doesnt have to be a pastor, evangelist, teacher, but that we have a gift that God has given us, and we can use that in ministry. I went on to talk about how there is one call that we all have, and that is to Love.

Right before we closed our drama team came up and did a human video to Switchfoots Dare You to Move. I then closed out the service with challenging the people to move out of their seats, and going out and answering the call to love.

We had a really good response afterwards with people telling us that we did good. Thats not what I want to measure it on, I want to see people take what they heard, and saw, to their heart and answer the call to love, and find their ministry.

New Softball Season Underway

2008-05-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

We started our church softball league tonight. We ended up losing both game which were very close, and we should have won. Here are some highlights.

Game 1

I went 3 for 4 with 1 RBI, and made one throwing error to first base. I think we lost by 1 run.

Game 2

it to the girl at home plate. She pretty much knelt down in front of home plate about 5 stepsThis was the interesting game, I lead off with triple. The next batter hit a pretty hard ground ball to short and as the shortstop was mid throw i took off for home, and he stopped and threw before i got there and i was like CRAP I HAVE TO JUMP OVER HER! As I was getting ready to jump she leaned forward to get the ball, head butted my stuff and I flipped over her and laid her out and landed on the side of my head and shoulder. I was more worried about her, and Susan freaked out thinking I was hurt bad. It looked something like this, except I went over the top of her.

My neck and shoulder feel like crap now. After that batter they came out and made us stop using the Mike Freak that I brought, and it appears that it is now banned in the ASA. Oh well.

We were down 8-0 and in the 2nd or 3rd inning we had a 2 out rally and scored 10 runs. We ended up losing by 3.

Week 1 and already lots of pain and excitement.

Paypals New Enemy

2008-05-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Worshipcity for the info on this.

revolutionmoneyexchange offers free money transfer between users. Its free to sign up and if you do so by the end of today you get $25, and if you can refer others you get $10 for each referral.

Referral bonus or not, this looks like a pretty cool concept.

This is a better alternative for anyone that sells on EBay, there are no fees to transfer money between moneyexchangeusers. So I say we get the ebay community on this.

30-Day Health Challenge Day 5

2008-05-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

I am now 5 days into this, and its going good in some aspects and not as well as I would like in others.

I have not had a soda since Friday, and have been drinking on average 50-60 ounces of water a day along with tea and juice. I have had only 1 cup of coffee, something else I decided to cut back on.

I have eaten some fried foods, but it has only been small amounts. No large fries from McDonalds and no Extra Crispy chicken breast from KFC. I have eaten more mushrooms, i am allowing it since I havent been able to eat them for a couple years.

Here is my biggest draw back.

EXERCISE

I have done very little exercise, its been really tough with my schedule. I dont get home from work until 6:00-6:30. After eating supper and doing whatever chores around the house or going to meetings its around 9:00.

Any suggestions?

One Day Complete

2008-05-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

I started a 30 day challenge yesterday, and I have a decent start on it. I gotta work towards a couple things a little better.

I accidentally ate an egg roll from hyvee before i realized "no fried foods". I was also seriously needing a sody pop last night at 8:30, had the headache to go with it, but I didnt cave in.

64 oz of water is gonna be a little tough unless thats the only thing i drink. I think i drank over 64 oz of fluid but not all water, some juice, and vitamin water (blech).

Over all it was a decent start, here we are into day 2. I will update later this week.

How is your 30 day challenge going?

30-Day Health Challenge

2008-05-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

I had been thinking over the past week about doing a month of change for my eating and exercise. Changing my eating habits and actually exercise more than getting out of bed. Today I was reading a blog from @tspencer and he posted that he was going to do a 30-Day Health Challenge.

Rules

30 mins of exercise every day.
drink 64 oz. of water each day.
No soda.
No fried foods

Dates: May 10 - June 8

I am definitely on board with this, and it looks like its getting a good following (not necessarily all by choice)

Will you take the challenge?

Blog about it and share your experience.

The Magic of Mushrooms

2008-05-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite things about Spring. Finding and eating mushrooms.

My brother-in-law and I went mushrooming last Saturday along the railroad tracks. We didnt have the best of luck, but definitly found enough for a mess. Here are some highlights.

First mushroom of the season.

Cooking the catch

Not complete without mushroom gravy.

Here are a couple pictures I took at the track, just thought they looked cool.

And of course as always I go to work and I hear about stories like this.

Girl at work, her boyfriend and some other friends found 20lbs Sunday morning and another 20 lbs Sunday evening.

Who Do You Trust

2008-04-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night in youth we talked about Trust.

We started off playing a game of Blind Kickball, where everyone paired up with a friend and one of them had to play blindfolded while the other gave them verbal directions of what to do. It was pretty interesting. After that I did a short lesson talking about trust.

Some of the things I touched base on.
1. Ultimately we need to put our trust in God, he knows our needs and he cares for us more than anyone else.
2. Everyone needs someone that they can trust, someone you can talk to about your troubles.
3. It's not good to have too many people that you trust with your business. You open yourself up a lot more to hurt.
4. Sometimes a persons trust is broken unintentionally, by casual conversation.
5. We need to be that friend that others can trust.

What to say after 15 years.

2008-04-21T09:59:00.001-07:00

I got the chance to have lunch with a friend from school yesterday. I havent seen him since he moved away 15 years ago. I have only talked to him on messenger or the phone maybe 6 times in the last 15 years. He called me saturday night and said he would be in the area on Sunday and wanted to meet for lunch.

I started thinking back to school, he moved to rushville in the 5th grade and we became really good friends right away. We spent summers playing football, and baseball. I hated it when he had to move away, and lost touch with him for probably 6 or 7 years after. I was really curious to see how much had changed in 15 years. Apaprently a lot more than I thought about.

Both of our appearances have changed somewhat, I have 2 kids and he has a daughter that is the same age as Haley. We have both went different directions in life, but I think the wierdest thing for me was the fact that the last time I saw him, we were sophmores, and the only concern was having a good time. Fifteen years later, our conversations are about life, what twists and turns there have been and what lies ahead.

I thank God for old friends, the fun that I had in my youth, the life that I have now, and what is yet to come.

Using Your God Gifted Talent

2008-04-17T14:06:00.000-07:00

Last night at youth we talked about using your God Gifted Talents. I read out of Matthew 25:14-30, the parable of the 3 servants. Discussed how God has gifted us with talents according to our capabilities, and that we need to make use of the talents that he has given us. We cant be looking at other people and wonder why we cant have their talents.

I really like the words he spoke to the first 2 servants, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

Are you using the talents God has Gifted you with, or are you trying to go your own way?

Answer the Call

2008-04-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

I felt like God placed this on my heart a couple months ago. I have sat down at different times to work on it for a youth message/series, but everytime it didnt seem like it was the right time (if that makes sense). About a month ago or so pastor asked if the youth would do a Sunday AM service in April. I prayed about it and I felt like this was the time for it.

I have created a GoogleDoc with my basic outline and some thoughts. Go log in and add your 2 cents. I am looking for some extra creativity. I have some thoughts that I have not listed there, wanting to see what others have.

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dfn75np_0j2tcv8gf

What Day is Today?

2008-04-08T06:46:00.000-07:00

My 4 year old daughter Haley asked me this question this morning as I was getting my shoes on. I told her Tuesday, and as I said it I started thinking. It's Tuesday, I have to get a project at work finished up today, I have a board meeting tonight, need to finish getting ready for youth tomorrow night, and need to get ready to take the final for my Berean course on Thursday.

Then she interrupted my thoughts with, "Ok, i was just wondering what day it was". To her there is no to-do list, theres nothing pressing to get done. She just lives for now, and the occasional asking in the morning, can I have candy for my after school snack.

We tend to get so caught up in the future that we miss today, and lose out on so much.

Matthew 6:34 - Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

"Suckfast" The meal between Supper and Breakfast

2008-04-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

I was at the church from 4-12:45 on Saturday Night for the concert. I never really had a chance to get away for supper, or wasnt hungry at the time. After I dropped Jacob off, I went to Hardees drive-thru and got a Monster Bacon Cheeseburger, Medium Fries, Medium Coke (Hardees Medium = Everyone elses Large). I finally got to sit down to eat at 1:15.

I hate eating late at night, but I hate going to bed hungry even more. No I dont wonder why I have gained weight, I know.

Where I Belong?

2008-04-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

I have been feeling lately that I am unfulfilled. I get to where I am not sure if I am where I belong, doing what I am supposed to be doing. I went through this 8 months ago, and here I am again.

Its kind of hard to explain, but here goes. I like my job, I have been in it for a little over a year and things have for the most part been good. I have been in the youth ministry here for about 6 months, and it has grown from 4 students that came off and on to averaging 12-15, and a total of around 50 different students that have came through our wednesday night service and sunday night connect at our house. Its been going pretty good, overall as well.

I think part of my thing is, that I am not able to do youth full time and i am trying to get a full time ministry done in a fraction of the time. I am not really sure what to feel, or think.

Has anyone else went through this, or even have some advice??

So it begins...

2008-04-04T07:31:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I took Brayden to his baseball tryouts for coach pitch. It went really good, except for the pop flys, think he is still a little afraid of it. Last night, Susan took him to his first soccer practice, and his first game is tomorrow.

He is very exceited about all of this, its great, cause it takes me back to my summers as a kid. I am trying to do everything I can to let him make the most of his childhood. I didnt get around to it this year, but I would like to possibly coach a baseball team next year.

If anything, I have learned a lot in the past couple months. I need to spend more time with family, especially my kids. They grow up so fast and I get so caught up in everything else, that I miss valuable opportunities. Thats why you dont see me online in the evenings that much. With working fulltime during the day, and being youth pastor, its hard to not get pulled away from whats important.

First 100% on Rock Band

2008-03-31T06:55:00.000-07:00

I just got Rock Band for PS2 for my birthday on Saturday, played it some Saturday night and last night.

I got my first 100% on drum solo career. Its on medium, and I am about half way through all the songs.

Birthday Celebration

2008-03-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

The birthday celebrations are drawing to a close. My dad and step mom took us to Ponderosa for supper, and had the all you can eat shrimp with a 6oz sirloin and salad. I ate a plate and a half of these boys, should do me for about a year on the shrimp.

Also got Rock band, and have been playin it since we got home.

Tomorrow Susan is taking me out to Buffalo Wild Wings.

The Big Day

2008-03-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today was the big day for me, I turned 30. As far as birthdays go, it was ok, I worked all day came home to a steak supper, which was really good. Now I am at h2o and have been since 7.

Instead I am taking this whole weekend as my birthday, it is the big 30 after all. Tomorrow my dad is taking me out for supper and maybe get rock band, sunday we are going to buffalo wild wings for lunch.

Twitter

2008-03-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

I finally logged back into twitter after close to a year of being absent. Just in one day, I set up my phone, downloaded and setup a gtalk account.

Interested to see how it goes.

http://twitter.com/jayman32878

Countdown Day 1

2008-03-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

This is it, there is no more being 20 something. When I wake up in the morning, I will be 30. Ready?

I guess, as if I have any other option. Today was better, guess I am more prepared for it.

Has anyone else had a hard time dealing with turning 30? I have been able to talk to my dad, he went through the same thing when he turned 30.

Countdown Day 2

2008-03-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

It's fast approaching.

Todays agenda.

First of all I definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I was in a pretty bad mood this morning, and just felt like crap all day.

Worked from home today, but it didnt seem to be all that eventful. I got stuff done, but didnt feel like I got anywhere.

Finished getting ready for tonights service, which was supposed to be working on stuff for the youth service that we will be doing on Sunday AM in the end of April. That turned out to be nothing like I expected, some of the students that seemed interested in being a part before suddenly decided not to, and trying to keep things going on the right path was tough. Just say its a lesson learned. There were 21 students again tonight, which 4 of them were new.

Ended the night by working on Berean course some more.

Countdown Day 3

2008-03-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

Here is day 3, only 2 more remain!

What I did today
It was pretty interesting.

Worked again, it wasnt too bad.

Got some random text from a number I have never seen with the text "Who the He11 is this!!". I replied, Interesting question, why are you texting me? It appears that they received a pix msg of a Penis from "my number"? It went back and forth a little bit, then finally ended with them sending me a txt at 10:00 saying sorry for bothering you.

Practiced baseball after supper with Brayden. I was really impressed on how much he has improved over the past several months, especially with not playing much during the winter.

Went to K-Mart and got some new shoes for work, yeah thats right K-Mart kickers. Also looked at Rock Band for PS2, they also had just the drum set. Not sure if I would want just that, even though thats what I would play all the time.

Napped on the couch, woke up, came to bed.

Realized I forgot to post this. Its now 11:58.

Top that day!!

McDonalds RedBox

2008-03-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

McDonalds has started putting on their large drinks, free rental promo codes for RedBox movies. We have a RedBox but it is at a grocery store. I have 2 codes as of now, and will get more I am sure.

If you use a McDonalds RedBox and would like the codes, or know someone who does, let me know.

Countdown Day 4

2008-03-25T06:44:00.000-07:00

This is the countdown to my big 3-0. I figured I would just do a 4 day countdown here.

This is actually for Monday March 24th.

What I did today
- Worked, it went pretty fast. Looked up mid-life crisis at wikipedia. This is what I have come to conclude. Under the occurence.

A midlife crisis could be caused by aging itself, or aging in combination with changes, problems, or regrets over:

1) Work or Career - I have wondered if where I am at is where I am supposed to be, if I am really ever going to get anywhere. I applied for a different position that would be working with something I think that I would like more than what I do now. I havent heard anything since I applied a month ago.
2) Spousal relationships - Everything is good with my 5 wives. Seriously there are no worries here.
3) Maturation of children - Although they are only 4 and 7, I am always thinking about how fast they are growing up, and how soon they will be out of my care. It is actually depressing at times to think about.
4) Aging or death of parents - Both of my parents are still alive, but my dad is 61 and mom is 57. Still young right? I just think about how they could still ahve another 20-30 years, then I think about how fast this past 30 has went. :(
5) Physical changes associated with aging - Do I even dare go there?!? I have gained 40 lbs in the last 6 years, and probably 10 in the last year. I have noticed that I am getting White not gray but WHITE hairs in the side of my head! I am always thinking about my health, and trying to figure out how to lose weight and get healthier.

Overall, I am having a hard time letting go of my 20's I guess.

-Watched The Bee Movie with family.

- Gave cat a bath

- Took a bath, but not with the cat.

Easter or Christmas

2008-03-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

Well another year and Christmas has passed.

Oh, wait, that was Easter. I walked out yesterday morning to head to church and there was a thin layer of snow on teh ground and it was still snowing. The kids did their egg hunt in sideways blowing snow, but that didnt stop them from getting 20 pounds of loot.

It was crazy on the way home from Susans mom's house. It is about a 40 minute drive, and we went through pretty hard snow, bright sunshine, dark clouds that looked like they could turn into a tornado at any minute.

2 Days of Rock Band

2008-03-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

Our niece and nephew (Alyssa, Jesse) who are also part of our youth, spent the last 2 nights at our house. We played quite a bit of Rock Band. I am already addicted to the drums. I think I could play most of the songs on medium and a few on hard (possibly).

We also played Cranium last night, and searched for Jesse's girlfriends class ring that he dropped outside. It was pretty cool hangin out with them.

New Addition to the Family

2008-03-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

This is our Easter present to Brayden & Haley. They have been wanting a pet for a while, so we decided to get a cat.

We got him at the animal shelter, and thought it would be the ideal place. It ended up costing us a lot more than we thought it would, but it was worth it to see how happy they were. Brayden came up with the name Buddy, im gonna call him Buddy "Lee".

Crazy Sickness

2008-03-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

Its been crazy in the Davis household over the last month. Actually since Target weekend, Susan and I both came down with nasty colds. When Brayden and Haley got back home on that Sunday, Haley just started getting Pink Eye, so she missed school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Susan called in on Monday and Tuesday. Brayden got pink eye from Haley so he missed school Tue-Fri, and I called in on Tuesday, worked part of the day from home on Wednesday, called in on Thursday. Yeah, thats all in one week!

Since then i think there was one week that no one missed anything, but the last 2 weeks have been more of the same. Last week Haley ran a fever for 4 days, it started over the weekend and she missed last Monday and Tuesday so Susan called in both of those days. This week Brayden has gotten the same thing, it started Tuesday afternoon. I work from home on Wednesdays, so I was able to stay home with him. I just emailed my manager to let him know I needed to work from home today as well, and use some sick time.

Pinky and the Brain

2008-03-19T06:16:00.000-07:00

Ahhh. Its good to see all the older cartoons come back. Brayden is home today from school with a fever, and just got done telling me all about a Pinky and the Brain episode he watched last night.

With our cable we have a bunch of Free On Demand channels. One of them is boomerang, and the kids love watching shows that are on there. The Smurfs, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, Scooby Doo. It takes you back to Saturday Mornings, real Saturday Mornings.

Here is some of my all time favorite Saturday Morning shows (no particular order)
- Garfield and Friends http://youtube.com/watch?v=ngDqt4veNSI
- Mother Goose and Grimm http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yh6pteSBIFg&feature=related
- M.A.S.K. - http://youtube.com/watch?v=p1_76ZAq9d0&feature=related
- Smurfs - http://youtube.com/watch?v=8dprK_9z0Qc
- Saved by the Bell

What were your Saturday Morning favorites?

The Big 3 0

2008-03-17T08:35:00.001-07:00

Its only like 11 days until I hit 30, and I am not ready for it at all. Not sure why but I am really dreading it, maybe it has to do with letting go of my 20's.

I kinda feel like I am just now getting started with my life, but am really late getting started. I just graduated from college a little over a year ago and started a career, as well as starting into ministry in the last year. Even my 7 year old says I am old LOL!

Workin on new converts

2008-03-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

It was awesome, I got to see 2 people convert tonight, now we will see if they backslide to windows.

The Message says it best.

Proverbs 22:6 - Point your kids in the right direction—
when they're old they won't be lost.

I looked up "child raising" at bible gateway to try and find this verse. This is the number 1 result.

BASTARD » (An illegitimate child)

Rock Band

2008-03-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

This is the 3rd week in a row that we have had students at our house to play Rock Band. I didnt get picks of everyone that was here, but here are a couple, and sorry there are none of me in this post.

The Alyssa's

'Jessmango'

My wife (she really gets into it)

Camping In

2008-03-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

Last night was interesting. I at the last minute spent the night at the church with Pastor Randy and 13 K-6 boys for a Camp-In.

There were 2 other guys that were helping out until around 10, but at last minute were not able to stay the night because of other things that came up. So, I decided that I couldnt leave him to survive an all-nighter alone. I got in there around 11:30 and they were just finishing up a movie and Brayden was the only one that was sleeping. I leaned over to pastor and jokingly said, so its play time after this right, thinking he was ready to put them to bed. He replied "Yeah we are going to go play hide and seek in the overflow room. CRAP!! There goes my easy night.

Hide and seek before bed time is not a good idea for 13 boys that have been chugging caffeine since 6:30, one of which had downed 2 amp tallboys. As soon as we got back into our room to get ready for bed, we were both dog piled, I got off easy, except for one sixth grader weighing 250 tackling me from behind, and ampboy doing flying kicks into my butt and middle back.

We finally put another movie on and got to sleep around 3, then was up at 8:30 for breakfast and guitar hero in h2o.

It was really cool, its been a long time since I have done anything like this.

Flight of Conchords

2008-03-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

I found these guys a while back and was looking at some of their stuff on YouTube. Some of their stuff doesnt have real great content, but they have some really good stuff.

This one has a really cool part with video playing on the paper as it comes out of the copier. I would like to be able to get into video editing more, but I have a hard enough time just figuring out FinalCut Pro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCub8r1T5Rs&NR=1

Here are some others that I think are funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iSlPoQm2XY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wqfcwgT0Ds&feature=related

Sixteen Candles

2008-03-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

Thats what I saw last wednesday at youth service.

We are in the middle of a 3 week series talking about Who You Are. Last week I talked about matthew 5, reading through to verse 16. We discussed some about the beatitudes, but i actually focused more on where it talks about the salt and light. I spoke about how we are what gives the world its flavor, without each of us it would be really bland, and dull.

I thought back and forth a lot about this next part before service. Remembering back to "Candle Light Services" where sure enough some one broke out in song with "This Little Light of Mine". I was afraid of being borderline cheesy. I decided to do it anyways.

Once I said something about life being dull without any light except for the sun and the moon, I had the house lights go out. I spoke for about a minute in the dark then lit a candle, and finished the last few minutes of the service by the light of 1 candle, and of course my mac screen on its dimmest setting.

Closing out the service, I had the students each light their own candle, and spent about 5 minutes discussing how we are to represent this light. After the service closed, we had a student come up to Susan and they prayed together and he accepted Christ.

This was an exciting service for us, in that it was the most we have seen in a service, and this is the first student to accept Christ under our ministry.

A month of fasting

2008-03-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

At last months board meeting, paz challenged us to fast and pray between then and this weeks meeting. I was originally going to fast soda for the whole month, but after a couple days I gave that up. Not because I couldnt go with out it (It was tough though). After 2 days I realized that I was only going without soda, not really fasting and praying.

I changed the focus to cut out radio everyday to and from work. It may not sound like much, but realize its been my morning routine to listen to Mancow on the way to work and just random stuff on the way home. My commute is roughly 50 minutes one way, so I was able to get at least a good hour of prayer in each day that I worked.

Over the past few weeks, I have prayed for various areas, and one of my main focuses was youth. These past couple weeks have been awesome, our youth has went from having the 3-5 same students each week, to having close to 30 different students through youth service on wednesdays and our house on sunday nights. This past wednesday was a great service, there were 16 students, I will be blogging about it soon.

Why I am Here

2008-03-07T15:32:00.000-08:00

I am still asking myself that question.

I am new to this, I have been reading others blogs for a while now and just recently really felt the desire to have my own blog. So here is the first of what will be many. I already have a list in my head, but not the time right now.