Validation Junkie
So about this whole blog thing...is it a fad or is it here to stay? I think for the most part it is here to stay. It gives people an outlet to be heard and a way to express themselves. But I would tend to think that most people will not just post for the sake of posting. They need some validation that people are reading what they are writing and care about what they are doing. I am no different in this regard and I get the most pleasure from the comments that you all leave. I think most bloggers would always like to see more comments but I understand as a blog reader you have to be really moved by something in order to comment on it. I also understand that boring posts like this one will probably not get as many comments, unless it strikes a nerve with you.
So I am stuck. Do I write about things that will make more people comment thus satisfying my insatiable appetite for blogger validation? Or do I just write about the things that I find interesting? Hmmmm...you tell me.
Okay weird rant over...
I am a little over 2 weeks into my new job and I am loving it. Like any new job there is a uncomfortable period of adjustment as you meet new people, learn office politics, and figure out what you are supposed to be doing. But for the most part that is behind me. I like the people I work with and I get to do some really cool things.
I got some new headphones for my iPod. I am listening to it a lot at this job and the headphones that came with it were hurting my ears. I purchased a pair of Sony MDR-EX81 white headphones. They have an incredible sound and are very comfortable. They also block out all background noise which is good and bad. Good, because then I don't hear the ambiant noise of a factory, but bad because I can't hear my phone ring on my desk 2 feet away (yes, they are that good).
Tonight we are planning to take Mia to a pumpkin patch where they have animals and all sorts of fun stuff. Check back later for pictures and whatnot. It should be a lot of fun.
We are four weeks into our new church. For those of you who don't know we are part of a group from our home church (Saylorville Baptist) that is starting a church plant in Polk City. Everything has been going great. We are having one service on Sunday morning and then meeting at Saylorville for the rest of the time. Each week our attendance has increased, we had 62 people a couple weeks ago and we have already seen one lady get saved! It is pretty cool to be a part of something like this. It is as close to a original "New Testament" type of church that you could get. You can find out more at www.lakesidefellowship.net
Mia is doing new things all the time. A couple days ago we were downstairs and she decided to go back up. Well she only went about half way, turned around and asked me "ready?" She asked several more times and I finally said that I was ready. Then she walked down the stairs and jumped off of the last one and made a clean standing landing. Wow. What will she do next? I do have some video that will hopefully get put up soon, but don't hold your breath.
Well, the time is now for me to close. This post has been brought to you by the number 7 and the letter q.
Bye Bye Miss American Princess
I hate it when I miss really funny and new stuff Mia does. There are always pro's and con's to working from home, but one of the awesome opportunities I have had is to have been at home for most of her life. Being away at a "real" job is probably the hardest thing about it. My time with her and Mickie is cut down drastically. But enough whining...
Today at Wendy's Mia decided that everyone in the place needed to be told "bye." And it was not just an ordinary "bye." It was a "people in Mexico heard her yell BYE." And she had to do it over and over and over again! And then if that wasn't enough, Mickie asked said they were going to pray before they ate and Mia folded her hands and closed her eyes - and then proceded to want to pray the rest of the meal. I guess she could be doing worse things.
Too bad I missed it.
"ByE!" BYe!" "bYE"
So much new and time is too few
Wow, so much has happened in the past week I can hardly keep up. I feel like I am being pulled in about 1000 directions. Okay, so what else is new?
Two big items this go-round. First, I got a job! The weekend after I made my portfolio I got an interview with a company here in Des Moines. They interviewed me Monday morning and Monday night offered me the job. I slept and prayed on that night and accepted in the morning. My first day was on Friday. So who do I work for??? Trans-Lux Fair-Play. The Fair-Play name is fairly well known as they have been making scoreboards for over 70 years. In fact check out who makes your local high school, college or pro scoreboard and it is probably them.
My official title is Media Specialist. I am in charge of 2 corporate web sites. Fair-Play.com and transluxcommercial.com. The one with the long name will be getting a major face lift soon. I also will be doing graphic design for their print media, creating animations for scoreboards (you know, those cheesy baseball characters and huge letters...), and training customers on how to use the software to program the scoreboards. Wow, I am tired just thinking about it all. But it is exactly what I have been looking for. God is good and His timing is always perfect. You'd think I would learn, but noooooo.
Right now after 3 days I am trying to keep my head above water and get familiar with a lot of new stuff but I am really enjoying it. I'll post some pictures of my cubicle soon because I know you all are dying to see it.
The next big item is...(if I knew anything about writing and marketing these articles would be separate but I don't.) so here goes.
Mickie and I officially joined Saylorville Baptist's church plant in Polk City a couple weeks ago. Our church voted a few months ago to plant a new church and the location that was decided on was Polk City. We held our very first service on Sunday morning in the loft of a garage. It was cozy and a great atmosphere. We had over 40 people and 8 visitors from the community! Awesome! I had the opportunity to lead the music which went well. I have put up a small website for the church plant at www.lakesidefellowship.net where you can find out more.
Pray for us as we embark on this awesome journey!
Choose Your Own Blog
Today I am going to revisit an old blogging game we played awhile ago. In the spirit of "choose your adventure" this blog post will allow you to choose your own flow for today's story. Have fun!
It has been a little [crazy] [calmer] around here with Mickie gone the past few days. She went to [Lincoln, NE] [Maui, HI], [South Bend, IN] for a 2 day class on [fetal monitoring] [growing sugar cane] [being Irish]. Mia and I have had fun although [I haven't gotten much work done], [she backed the car into the garage door]. One of the highlights of our couple days has been [finding a live skunk in the neighbors window well], [going to McDonalds].
Random Uber Shot
Mickie gets home tonight and [the house had better be clean], [there had better be some oreos left]. We just tried the new mint oreos and they are [really good - they taste like Thin Mints], [the worst cookie creation ever], [jive].
That is about it for today's [fun], [silly antics]. If there are mispellings I am sure dad will [let me know], [have an ulcer], [make a joke/pun about ulcers and mispellings...]
Here is today's fun link. Turn any photo into a wacky poloroid with caption!
State Fair Day
Today, we had our second annual family excursion to America's Favorite Fair...or so they say. It was a tremendous opportunity to eat just about anything on a stick, mow down a deep fried candy bar, see hundreds of live cows, and get ridiculed by a clown in a dunk tank. Wow.
It was pretty hot, but unlike in CO I decided to wear sunscreen. I think Mia really liked the animals. While we were looking at the pigs a cow mooed really loud and Mia stopped dead in her tracks, whipped around and got a huge grin on her face. I laughed out loud. She also got to pet a horse, goat, and kissed a llama.
By far the best thing about the state fair is the food. While I did not get my deep fried donuts this year, I did get a chocolate covered nut roll. I am still buzzing.
We didn't make it into the midway but I am sure if we go next year Mia will want to go.
Interesting side note: USA Today ranked the Iowa State Fair as the number 2 attraction in America that you have to visit, right behind Las Vegas. Now, I'm not sure what their critera was, but we do have a pretty cool butter cow, and you really can eat almost anything on a stick. So make plans next year to come and experience America's Favorite Fair...
You can see more of our fair pictures on Flickr.
New Videos
I have just posted several new videos in the video gallery. Guess who they star? This is sort of experimental and there a few bugs I am still working out - so be patient. The videos are optimized right now for broadband connections. Sorry to those of you with dial-up. I will work on getting a dial-up section as well. For now it is my way of trying to push everyone forward to better technology. The world is so much better with broadband... Anyway, enjoy.
That Thing She Does
It's every father's job to tell everyone how cute and adorable his daughter is and I am no different. As I think back to before she was born and we thought she was he I could have never imagined having a girl. Now I can't imagine what life would be like if she had been a boy. (does that make any sense?)
Nevertheless, in the car tonight she was making a screeching noise. The noise was one that if a little louder could be quite annoying, or if it had kept on, but each time after the warble left her voice she would tell herself "no no" be quiet for a couple seconds, and repeat.
It was one of those time where you smile to yourself and force yourself not to look back. Thank goodness for rear view mirrors.
I hope to post some new video soon of our dancing queen. She's got a routine that gives Napolean Dynamite a run for his money.
You might have noticed that the sidebar on the right is getting a little fuller. I joined google's adsense program. More for the novalty I guess, but maybe I'll make a little money. It is a free program that pays me everytime someone clicks a sponsored link. So if you would like to help feed a hungry mouth...or put little Mia through college, go ahead and click. That's it just click.
I have even come up with a fun game for the ads. Google places ads relevant to the content on the site. So the challenge is to figure out what newsletter entry was the refference for that particualr ad. All right, it's not Frogger but it can still be fun.
And now for the thought of the day........"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and the world laughs harder."
You've been great. I'm out.
Some New Photos
Mia and Regan at the LongsI just finished uploading almost 4gb of photos from the past year and beyond to flickr. There are 4 new sets that were not on the old site.
The new photos include: Caleb's Graduation, Abi's Graduation, Our 4th of July trip to Indiana, and our Summer Vacation to Winter Park.
You can view the photos by going here.
Enjoy!
Something New
The last couple of days have been marked by things that are new. Awhile ago Mickie's bathroom mirror fell off of the wall. Fell off? Yup. And in the
process a big piece was broken off of the corner. This gave her the inspiration to redo the bathroom. She wanted to paint add a new light fixture, some other accessories and of course a new mirror.
The other new thing and really big deal at our house is Mia's swing set. On one of the trips to Menards we found a small swing set with a slide that was discontinued...and you will never see a happier girl.One last item. I placed a subscription field on the right side. If you would like to be emailed whenever the newsletter is updated and don't want to bother with RSS (although RSS is very cool...) enter your email and click subscribe.A New Era
So this is the first entry in the new blog...better make it good.
Greetings to you all! It's been awhile since we last talked. Hope everyone is doing great. The Byers household is slowly getting back to normal. We have had a crazy July. It started off with a trip to Indianapolis to visit our friends the Longs over the 4th. There was some good golf and a crazy wait at the Texas Roadhouse (another story for another time.)
I then broke my 26 year streak of not attending a funeral by going to 2 in 3 days. Mickie's aunt passed away so it was off to Missouri and then we went to Wisconsin for my grandpa's funeral.
We had a few days at home but then headed to Winter
Park, CO for vacation. It was a lot of fun. I'm glad we were in the mountains with the 90 degree heat instead of in the city with the 105 degree heat! Look for a video of Mia's first Alpine Slide ride soon.
So now we are back to normal - whatever that means.
Mia is growing up faster and faster. She decided today that she needed to kiss Mickie and me (multiple times) and no, I am not complaining. She is really into the game of peek a boo as well. She will hide behind a wall, couch, or whatever and stick her head out and say "peek." It really doesn't get any cuter than that.
One last thing, if you subscribed via RSS to our previous newsletter, you will need to change your feed address. I was cleaning out my server and accidently deleted my entire newsletter...which contributed to the swiftness of this new design and format. Sorry for the inconvenience.
So, hope you enjoy the new site. Make sure to leave your comments below!
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