Middle America's Worldview

Man, I am glad it's Friday. Something about it just makes it better. I am flying out to PA tomorrow but at least I get to come back Friday. I know I won't get anything accomplished while I am at Corporate, I never do. Too many meetings, interuptions ect.

I got my Bush/Cheney 04 bumper stickers in today! I didn't think I would get them before I left. I can now at least take some with me on my trip. I plan to at least put them in my windshield (tape them not actually sticking them ) on my rental. I also met Daniel Hill this morning and acquired some Tom Coburn yard signs. I put them up around Pocola on my way home. I met him around 7 a.m. this morning and then went on to my Chiropracter. Still doing that bid. I admit my wrist had not hurt since going to him (it was an old sport injury), so something must be right.

I took two tylenol pm's and I am feeling it. I also gave my 2 kiddo's a benadryl the same time ( alergies )but they are not feeling it. They wrestled me to death and I had to steal a break, hence writing this blog. Man, where do they get their energy?

I am already packed for the week out, and plan to spend the morning with the family. I am leaving out around 2 p.m. tomorrow and we plan to hit Mcdonalds for the kids prior to.

I did find a cool website, http://www.cwfpac.com/. It contains a scorecard of your Representives and Senators. Also they have a thing called Megavote where you can put your zip code in and recieve emails of your Senators/Representives votes, upcoming legislations, ect. I signed up for it and will let you know how it is. It sounds cool, bue we will see.

Is it really already nearly 8 p.m.? Well, I finally received my laptop around 2 something and it was as i feared. I couldn't get into some things I needed and some missing programs I needed.

I was on the phone with PCLAN for nearly 2 hours and finally got up and running. I also was hit with a lab issue to work on right off the bat. I was on the pc and phone for nearly 4 hours and will end up resuming tomorrow. Get this. After about an hour I asked the facility if they had a real pt issue and the answer was no. They were seeing the issue with a test pt. Go figure. They didnt have a real patient example.

My father-in-law had came by and was still here after 6 when I was done. He seen a 'this land is your land' with Bush and Kerry on the news that was crazy. I found it online and we watched it together laughing our butts off. Its found here and you can click play to see it. I tell you it's hilarous if your a Democrat or Republican.

The guy called me back in regards to the Tom Coburn for Senate yard signs. I will be able to pick them up tomorrow before work. I told him I hadn't seen any in Pocola area at all. He was grateful and seem to be pleased. I am doing this primarily to be active and I found it interesting AFA and James Dobson is supporting him.

I still need to install some of my software on this buisiness pc. But I am glad to get it back. I noticed they installed Win2K rather than the original XP and it now has a 25 gig harddrive. woo hoo. But it does suck I lost everything though.

Day 2 of my back to work and I still cannot do anything this morning. They supposedly sent my PC back to me via Fedex and I have yet to receive it. Yesterday I took the time to weedeat the yard and clean the house up. I should be getting it in about 2-3 hours. I called my supervisor and informed her I am still waiting on it and will plug in as soon as I receive it. They are going through a GW upgrade as I write this, so you know they would love me to get into the game. But I cannot yet.

I am in the process of creating a PTA website for our School. I have been selected to be treasurer and my wife is President. Cool eh?  I know it will be a royal pain in the a@@ but it will be good for the school and kids. The last year pres-vice pres didnt do much of anything. In fact looking at the past record it hasn't been much of an impact in quite some time.  So I am looking forward to making a difference in that regard.  I will post the site later when I get it up and going.

The GOP primaries for Oklahoma will be voted on next Tuesday. I will be flying out to Corporate this Saturday so wont be here. I found out I cannot even provide an absentee ballot. I am registered independant. I did this because I do not find myself voting on a specific party, rather on the basis of the candidate. But with Oklahoma law, only registered republicans can vote for the primary republican vote. The same with Democratic primary. But I still can vote on the ballot for Novembers election. I suspect I will be changing my registery this year to Republican. I am in contact with Tom Coburn's office to at least acquire some signs for his candidacy. Since I cannot vote nor will be here, I figured I can at least put up the signs, ect in my area to support him that way. I do not see any signs for him in my town.  Tom Coburn's site is located here.  I been speaking with a Brian Treat out of Muskogee, number is 918-684-4308.

I have also started to listen to AM radio talk shows. I find them more stimulating than the background music I usually listen too and there are some good information coming out of them.

 

My buisiness computer is still at Corporate and I start back tomorrow. What a drag. I cannot do anything without it. Seems the harddrive crashed hard and they are replacing that one and having to install all new software. I hate it. Not only will I be behind, I will be further behind now due to not even having it back yet. I left 2 voicemails on 2 different peoples offices and no word back nor any vm's in my bin at all. Very frustrating.

I leave for Pennsylvania on Saturday and return next Friday. I dread it. I never get anything done while I am up there. I am swamped with meetings, ect and constant disruptions.

We drove to Little Rock and back today. My son had another Dr. visit and followup. Seems most checked out ok. He is still doing well from last Monday so this is good.

School starts in less than 3 weeks! Our kids school start on the  11th. I will be gone one of the 3 weeks and I am the new PTA Treasurer. Much to do and no time to do it in.

I spoke with a gentlemen midway to Little Rock asking the consensus on peoples view, Kerry or Bush. He basically told me he would vote for a hounddog before Bush. I informed him Kerry hasn't even been doing his current job, missing 2/3 votes but managed to not support Defense for our troops, vote against the partial birth abortion ban, ect. But his mind was already settled. I truly do not understand why individuals would put our fellow americans in harms way, only for the reason of hatred.

Alot has happened during the last few days. One, my buisiness laptop crapped out. I hadt to fedex it out yesterday. I am on quote, unquote vacation. But the primary purpose was a procedure for my son. The procedure went well, and he is doing great! This is the best part of the vacation.

My wife took the catering food over to the wedding and we left that same Saturday evening. We drove as far as we could toward San Antonia, Tx. My wife has an aunt and uncle living in New Braunfels, near San Antonia. We crashed out nearly midnight at a hotel then proceeded on the following morning after a breakfast in Cracker Barrel.

We made it to her Aunt and Uncle house around 2 p.m. Sunday. Monday morning our son had the procedure in Austin while my daughter and I checked out Austins Nature place. It was cool for kids. She was able to dig in the sandpit uncovering dino bones, ect. She didnt care for the Nature trail. The procedure only took 45 minutes ( amazing with modern medicine ) and he also was able to see the dino site. We ( wife, kids and one of her cousins ) then ate at Joes Crab shack for lunch. It was good. I had a cobb salad, one of my favorites.

We then hit some outlets on the way back to the house. MY son was already doing very well. I was impressed most with the Bible Outlet. I wish I had more time to go back there before I leave. I was looking hard at a book ( Debunking Dwarnism ) and probably should had grabbed it.

Tuesday we hit the Schlitterbahn. Talk about a cool place. It was a water park and a half. We didn't hit the Master Blaster due to the tremendous lines but i did manage to hit the Black Knight with Kell's cousin. We also hit the tubes, and some body slides. The kids loved the kiddy pools, pirate ship ect. We had a tremendous good time.
Coming back to the house we ordered pizza and was wasted with the sun all day.

Wednesday we hit Seaworld. We managed to see all the shows; Shamu, the dolphins, Viva, ect. Again the kids had a blast. It was very spread out and we had rented a double stroller for the kids. This saved us because we could move faster and it was less hard on the kids. That night I ran to Hastings and rented a game and a couple of movies for the kids. Kell's cousin rented Spiderman2 for the PS2. Yes, I had to play it while here also. I was impressed with Hastings selection here. It is better than the one we have and I seen DeadZone season 2 there. I nearly grabbed it for only 39. This is the first time I seen it. I hadn't but may grab it before my trip here.

Today is Thursday, my 9 year anniversary. Kelli and I have plans to spend the night at the Drury Inn at the Riverwalk while the kids stay here. Since my son is doing so well, and the kids are looking for some time without us (pratically already asking when we will leave at 8:30 in the morning) we look forward to some quality time alone.

I recieved word my brothers in the hospital as of yesterday, last night. I didn't hear it from my family rather from Kell's aunt. ( The one in OK ). Seems he is passing more kidney stones and one is too large to pass. I get very aggravated at my family, because my son went through a procedure Monday and they have not yet called to check on him, knowing our cell numbers. Nor did they care to cal me informing me my brothers in the hospital. What can you do?

As unbelievable as it sounds, all those batch files I had to send for the facility last night had to be backed out this morning. I received an IM from the hospital stating their all duplicated charges/credits.

I was totally frustrated. So basically it was for nothing and I had now more work to do. Fortunately the interface was still there and I only needed to restart it. But I had to go into each batch (a data file full of 48 ((charges)) and 49 ((credits)) records. It was not a good morning.

Its now midnight and I cant sleep for nothing. I laid in bed well over an hour, so figured I can blog. I have tomorrow then I am off for awhile. I can't wait.

I went to the chiropractor today. I never been to one. I have an old sport injury in my rt wrist and it's probably carpal tunnel settling in. I picked up a case of bottle water the other day and it hurt like hell. I must have kinked it. I also have a sore spot under my rt shoulder blade, that's been going on for a week. I kept thinking its a pulled muscle, but it just wont go away. The past two days, I've taken loracet and Celebrex to ease the pain.
My wife has gone to him and speaks highly of his practice. So anyway, I went today and he put a electric box to my back shoulder muscles. It's not a tinge unit but something else. Supposedly this continues to work after its turned off. I don't know. I know I cant sleep worth a flip and I can't take a tylenol pm due to being on-call tonight. It sucks.

I also know my back is still sore and he is suppose to adjust me in the morning. I guess we will see. Guess, I will flip the tv in the living room since everyone is asleep and I don't want to wake the wife.

As you know, I ran scripts all weekend long. The revenue caught up nearly 2.5 million dollars for the facilty. Fortunately they fixed the issue and this is now done.

Yesterday evening, as I was leaving the office I received a call. I felt I better answer. BOS ( Buisiness Office ) at Corporate had a few in the room on a conference call to me. They explained to me that another facility had an issue with charges. Seems this hospital had not been looking at their charges for the past 7 days and was missing revenue.

What's the deal with these people? Seems no-one looks at their daily reports till its too late then expect IS to clean it up. Anyway, last night I spent nearly 2 hours creating a new interface to move the files over for the hospital to recapture their missing charges.

I asked my wife, what was the deal? Am I the revenue man or what?

We have today and tomorrow, then have to drive to San Antonia, Saturday. My wife is catering a wedding Saturday and we plan to leave afterward. I am ready to get off this roller coaster ride.

I hope everyone had a good and safe Fourth of July. It's been another delay, since my blog. Last week was just too busy in itself. This weekend was busy but nice. I was on-call all weekend but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared.

For work I had to run 3 olie scripts. An olie script is a neat little program that allows you to paste repetitive keystrokes within the ordering/registering system at work. So rather than a person entering in 1000 charges, you can set this bad boy up to enter them for you. Not everyone knows it, so it was deemed to me to do it. A hospital had contacted us about 2 weeks ago to request help entering in nearly 2.4 million bucks of charges from April through June that were missed. Eek gad.

So I wrote the script and attempted to run it. But it wouldn’t run on my P.C. Stupid thing kept dying on me. So the PC LAN group was able to set up a PC at Corp (in Pennsylvania) and set it up to allow me to PCAnywhere into it (from Oklahoma). I placed my files and script on that machine and ran it from there. It was good I could. We had thunderstorms Friday and Saturday and it kept disconnecting my connection to Corp. But the script remained running on the machine at Corp. Pretty cool, eh?

Of the 3 scripts (April, May, and June) I ran, May was the largest. It had over 18 thousand charges to enter. Needless to say it ran nearly 23 hours. Yes, I stayed up late babysitting it. But by Sunday morning / Saturday night they were done. While this ran, my wife organized the house out. She and I (mostly she) cleaned out all the closets, rooms ECT. Since it rained nearly all day.

Sunday we went to church and then I ran to grab a 16 inch July 4th Cookie from the Cookie Company. A couple with their 2 kids came over and we ate together. The kids played in the backyard in the pool (large pump kind, you find at Wal-Mart now). I brought out the water guns and the fun really began. The wives stayed in the house (chickens) while Erich and I first fought the kids then each other we were all drenched. We had a blast. My wife and I did manage to play some more tether ball, but she beat me again. Oh well.

Then at night we popped our fireworks and watched the neighbors as well. The friends didn’t leave till 10:30 p.m. We pretty much crashed after that. I didn’t get called but maybe 5 times all weekend. It was nice.

Monday we were off and I was not on-call. Alma, Arkansas has a small water park we had not known. So we took the kids over there and played for nearly 2 hours. It wasn’t bad at all. We had a blast and I was pleased to see the kids (5, 6 yrs old) go down the large water slides with no problem, alone! Cool.

That’s my weekend in a nutshell. Hope everyone enjoyed there’s.

I haven't posted in a couple of days. The family and I haven't been gettig to bed before 11 or 12 at night and we just seem to run, run run.

My wife had her 30th birthday party yesterday. I planned it on her and I was glad to see alot of her friends come over. The kids played and swam, ect. Her dad grilled all day and made enough to feed an army. Polish sausage, smoked sausage, steak, burgers, hot dogs, bratwurst, ham, pork chops, and more. It was a huge success. I put a canopy in the back yard with plenty of chairs and her mom brought over teather ball. It was the first time I ever played it and believe me, it was more difficult than it looked. I got bopped in the head twice and it was moving fast. For those like me who never played; Its a teather ball on a rope tied to one pole. Basically two people play and each try to hit the ball to get it to wrap the pole all the way. Each person is attempting to hit the ball in the opposite direction. I think I lost on every game but one, but it was a blast.

I was thinking about something this weekend. Here is the scenario, a person who loves his house is getting new carpet. Now when someone knows he/she is getting new carpet, wouldn't they be less worry of stains or a tear in it? Think about it, you are getting brand new carpet in one week and your kid (or someone else) spills something on it. You don't fret because you think 'Oh well, I am getting new carpet anyway, it's not such a big deal'. So you cover the bad stain with a rug or move furninture till the new carpet comes in. Keep that in mind. Now a person's life expectancy is what, 70 at best, normally around 60? Ok, let's say 70. If you think in 70 years equals 70 days. So let's say 70 days you will get new carpet. You know at first your going to take care of that carpet the first part of those 70 days. SO the first 35 days, you take care of this carpet then as you get toward the end you get a little less caring. A little blemish here, a little red stain there, the carpet gets a less newness on them. Do you see where I am going? If a Christian believes in the Bible literally, and asked Jesus to take their sins, accepting Him as their saviour, the christian would believe he/she was going to receive eternal life, thus a new body. So why is the christian afraid of what his/her body is looking like or the toll on it when they know they will be getting a new body. Christ said, our lives were but a shadow, basically this is nothing. But we tend to dwell too much on this body and life than the new one to come.
I didn't intend to really preach, but I couldn't help but think about this scenario during the weekend.

On a less deep discussion, I can't wait till DeadZone tonight. I missed most of it last weekend.

I am starting to sound either like a repeater or a whiner. But today at work was a booger. I again started before 8 a.m. but this time actually got out around 5:20 p.m. I had a conference call this morning that was, putting it mildly, not pretty. The facility is freaking because we have continued issues on this lab upgrade. Not the fact we just got Micro's to post and was up till nearly 6 p.m. doing it. So with grace, I said we will work on the following a, b, c. So without further ado, after the call I called up Birava, (she works at the vendor((she and I are the one working on the interfaces))) and we start again. We two seem to be bonding after busting our asses together last week and this week. I have to admit she is new in her job as I am still kind of new in this lab interface. So it's been an education for both of us.

Anyway, we humped it working on the ORM's (orders from lab to the ordering system) issue. Seems that when they order, irregardless, it shows a time of 0000. Well we started to investigate this and low behold, this is happening on all of the facilities that was upgraded to the new lab system. Hell, it’s been a problem for the past 5 facilities and no-one even said anything. Grr, so we fix it right before 2 p.m. (our next big meeting for an update), it was drama again. That's why I asked is it already 2 p.m.? That meeting was hell compared to the mornings call. She listed 3 issues remaining and wanted to hold off the live (bringing up the new lab system) next Tuesday. Well that didn't fly. The Lab Vendor already had 7 people flying out there for next weeks live and you know the tickets are non-reimbursable. So the facility was basically asked to hold off till tomorrow morning seeing how far we get today.

I ended up calling the same person at the facility to assist and we actually managed to correct all 3 issues remaining. Fortunately she commented on feeling better by the end of the day. We tested and fixed all we could with her, for the remaining time we had. Thus we were able to quit around 5:20 p.m.

After this I was able to eat. My lovely wife had supper waiting. Her day was hell as well. She had to run to and fro and ended up taking our son to therapy (as opposed to me), thus missing an appointment. Now she will have to keep it tomorrow and I have to take our son. But that's her, she's a giver.

My kiddos had to be at T-ball at 7 p.m for pictures. Only 2 more games to go. So they took their pictures and then the game at 8 p.m. With all the rain it was a muddy mess out there.

I didn’t get to see the game but my wife said it was good. My son made it all the way home. I think this was the only time, cool.
Once they came home, we through them in showers, pajamas and into bed with a movie.

Now its 11 p.m. and I have to go watch Dead Zone since I missed it Sunday. : )
Another late night. Bummer

Just another manic Monday is right. Started work this morning before 8 a.m., didn't leave till nearly 6 p.m. I barely had time to mute my person on the phone while I had to go pee.

We have a live scheduled (hospital going up on a newer version of Lab system) next Monday. We been busting our butt's testing and trying to get this up and running. We finally been able to get the Micro's to display in the order screen. Man it was a booger. I will be glad when this live is over.

Kelli didn’t have much of a better one; she had to watch our 2 kids, plus our friends 2 kids most of the day after Vacation Bible School. In addition she taught Pre-K Vacation Bible School. I hadn’t had much time to talk to her but she said there were 2 devil spawned children in her class already. : )

I didn't get into bed last night till 1 a.m. We made it to bed 15 minutes till midnight. I missed DeadZone! Ahh man, I caught the last 15 minutes of it by luck. I will try to watch the repeat Tuesday at 11 p.m. (Yes, I checked out TV Guide.Com for it. I see next Sunday they will spill the beans on his son. I tell you Nixon; I bet she is pregnant again.

Since I couldn’t get to sleep at midnight and it was too late to take Tylenol p.m.'s : ( I found Farscape on Scifi. So I got to watch Farscape, which it has been a long time, so that was cool.

The kids slept in the living room last night, around 12:30 a.m. (during a commercial) I went to check on them and my son was on the floor. I guess he fell off the couch. I put him on the smaller one.

I called my parents tonight and both were in a weird mood. I called my Dad and his mood was 'why don't you come over and visit me sometimes.' This from the guy that's been to my house maybe 5 times in the last 6 months. Seems he went to my brother’s house on a cookout and no-one to talk too. My brother kept himself busy and didn’t have time to converse.

My mom's deal was different. I called and talked to her and then she called me back about 30 minutes later. I guess she was lonely. I don't know. I don't have much of a relationship with them since I have a family of my own. It may sound crude. But realistically, if I don't call them, I wouldn’t have much contact from them, and it's not like we live that far apart either.

My poor wife. She has to work this evening. Fortunately, she can do alot of her paralegal work here at home, in the office. But it's a shame to be nearly 9 p.m. and non-stop.

For those thinking 'get off your butt and help!' I already asked. I don't have a clue of that stuff and I managed to vacuum, clean the remaining of the house.
: )

Is it nearly 11 p.m. Sunday night yet? Great Scott where did the weekend go?

We jumped into Church this morning, being Sunday. I go to a Men’s Sunday School Class and somehow the hour was spent on the influence of the Muslim religion across the world in addition to our lesson.

Received a major blessing from our Church today, in which I will dedicate a post for it.

After Church, we ran to my wife’s parent’s house to help move some furniture. When we get there we ate lunch and I ended up helping put in a floor. Has anyone seen these ‘click and lock’ wooden floors? Basically you have a tongue on one end and a groove on the other. You place them in a 45 degree angle and lock the wood together. There are no seams to it. It went pretty quick after we got past the door hinge ECT. I had to bring the skill saw to do some trimming on the edges.

We also moved the furniture from one house to the other ECT. As we finished up my wife’s Brother came with a friend and fought with her mom. It boiled down to she been asking him to put up a ceiling fan on the same room we did the floor and he did not want to do it. You have to know the history and I am not getting into it now. So I started on the fan and he and his buddy was finishing it up when Kelli, kids and I split. We ran to the house, I showered while she got the kids ready and we ran back to Church. This next week is Vacation Bible School here and my wife is teaching the Pre-K. We were going to have a baptism but the lady did not make it in. So everyone worked on putting all the rooms together for the week. I was amazed how this Church went all out on Vacation Bible School.

We got home nearly 8 p.m. and bathed the kids, and let them do a sleepover in the living room. They crashed watching ‘Kim Possible A sitch in time’ again. We are trying to catch up on laundry and some minimal cleaning up since we seem to run all weekend.

So it’s now 11:30 p.m. and we are about to hit the bed since we start all over again tomorrow. Anyone reading this and is a dad, Happy Fathers Day.

Gotta at least tell you, the kids made me some homemade coupons. I received a coupon for a hug, a kiss, and to listen to my songs in the car. heh heh I also received the book 'The Purpose driven Life' by Rick Warren. I been wanting to read it because everyone that had or in the process said it was a really good book.

Saturday we had a cookout here at home for Fathers day and asked both my parents, brother, friends, and wife’s parents, aunt, over. We expected around 12 people. For the morning, we got up and I managed to clean the bathrooms, vacuum/shampoo the carpets, and clean the floor. Put a tent up in the back yard, mowed the backyard (it was too wet but had to be done) but left the front untouched. I was trying to get everything ready to grill. We then went to T-ball prior to noon. The kids did well, in fact all of them. I played dugout dad. Amazing the hour went by quick when you keep the batting line in order and continue to tell 14 kids whose next up.

When we started back I noticed the black clouds coming our way and commented it might rain.

Headed home and started to grill. As I get started it started to splatter here and there with rain. Crap, got to move the grill and my stuff from the back to the garage. I get everything moved in and my father-in-law came up to help get the cooking started, and the rain starts coming in pretty good.

We cook regardless but during the cooking the rain becomes a storm and the streets look like a river. I had to literally move the grill and tables in a little because the wind was blowing so hard as to hit us with the rain. My family calls to cancel because they said it’s pissing and pouring and flooding outside where they are (parents are separated and two different locations). My brother ended up a no call/no show. My wife’s mom and aunt made it in, rain and all.

So we still had a good feast, bratwurst, polish and Italian sausage, 7 layer salad, spaghetti salad, hamburgers, hotdogs, corn on the cob and vegetables that was marinated in Italian dressing all night. I stuffed myself.

The rain finally stopped and Noah parked the ark. I find out today (Sunday) we had 3.5 to 4 inches in that 2 hour downpour.

The kids hadn’t been able to spend the night with their Nana and Papa so we let them go. I asked my wife what she wanted to do tonight (it’s nearly 7 now) since we hadn't expected a night alone. 'I don't know, rest and relax.' was the answer. So I ran to the movie place to rent a couple of movies. We watched '50 first dates', with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sander, and then I watched 'Spartan', with Val Kilmer. Both ended up better than I thought they would be.

After that, we pretty much crashed. Real exciting, huh? But it was nice to be able to relax and simply watch a movie together.

Great Scott, I finally figured it out! Man, it feels good. Yes, I am easy to please. Such small trivial things make me excited!

Senate Reportedly Sets Mid-July Vote on FMA
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
June 16, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - It's not yet official, but press reports said the U.S. Senate is moving toward a July vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment.

Roll Call, a newspaper covering Capitol Hill, said the vote would happen in mid-July, just before the start of Democratic National Convention in Boston, Mass., where homosexual marriage is now legal.

The newspaper quoted Sen. Rick Santorum, the Republican Conference chairman, as saying that Republican leaders want a July vote, although they have not yet set a specific date.

American Values President Gary Bauer reportedly said the vote would happen on July 15. "We have one month to flood congressional offices with phone calls, letters and e-mails," WorldNetDaily quoted Bauer as saying.

In a press release dated Wednesday, the Alliance for Marriage said it "welcomed the announcement of a pending Senate vote" on the Federal Marriage Amendment in July.

"This marks the beginning of a democratic debate that the Alliance for Marriage hoped to create when we drafted the marriage amendment," said Matt Daniels, AFM president.

The group said its goal is to allow the critical issue of marriage ito be resolved democratically, rather than through the courts.

"Most Americans believe that gays and lesbians have a right to live as they choose. But they don't believe they have a right to redefine marriage for our entire society," said Daniels. "Americans want our laws to send a positive message to children about marriage, family and their future."

Daniels said a constitutional fix is necessary to solve the problems created by activist judges and agenda-driven lawsuits.

"AFM's marriage amendment has been introduced with bi-partisan sponsorship in two successive sessions of Congress in order to protect the common sense view of marriage shared by the vast majority of Americans of every race, color and creed."

AFM said its Federal Marriage Amendment will protect marriage, while leaving the issue of benefits to the states.

"AFM believes this centrist approach embodied in our amendment offers hope of a democratic resolution to a debate that has been forced on the American people by the courts."

The Federal Marriage Amendment reads, "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union between a man and a woman. Neither this constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups"

Some conservative groups reject the Federal Marriage Amendment as currently written. Concerned Women for America says it's important to do more than preserve marriage "in name only."

The group says same-sex partnerships should not be afforded the same benefits as married couples are.

"CWA opposes the Federal Marriage Amendment because it would not prevent state legislatures from recognizing and benefiting civil unions and other such relationships, which would result in legalized counterfeit marriage," the group's website says.
=====================================================================================
Senate To Vote On Federal Marriage Amendment July 15
Democrats Support Homosexual Marriage, Vow To Kill Amendment
Help send 1,000,000 letters of support for President Bush's efforts!


The U.S. Senate will vote on The Federal Marriage Amendment on or about July 15. I urge you to respond to the call of President Bush for support by helping send one million letters to the Senate. This will be the most letters ever received by the Senate on any issue.

Democratic leaders in the Senate, including Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschale and Senators Charles Schumer (NY), Barbara Boxer (CA), and Debbie Stabenow (MI) have promised homosexual leaders they will kill the amendment. Their action would allow one liberal, activist Federal judge to overturn all marriage laws and make homosexual marriage legal in all 50 states.

Some have referred to this as the most important vote in the history of our nation. If the homosexual activists and the Senate Democrats are successful, homosexual marriage will radically reshape our society. They will force acceptance of their lifestyle on the rest of society.

TIME FOR ACTION

Click here to send an e-mail to your Senators. This is very important. It is time for action if we want to keep marriage legal only between one man and one woman. Time is short. July 15 is the date for the vote.

We cannot secure those one million letters of support for President Bush without your help. PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO EVERY PERSON ON YOUR E-MAIL LIST. We must expand our base of support to reach our goal!

After forwarding to your e-mail list, please print this letter and distribute to your Sunday school class, church, clubs, etc. They can participate by visiting www.afa.net. Help secure the one million letters!

Thanks for responding to President Bush's call for support.

Send your letter today!

Sincerely,

Don

Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association

Amazing how your spouse can make it all better. See today is also my Birthday and as I stated earlier, she made a great dinner. Well, she acquired for me the 3rd Lord of the Rings on DVD, Return of the King. So guess what I am watching tonight?

On top of that, she made a really delicious cake. It was better than sex cake, but with hardly no fat. Talk about moist and good. Mmm mmm

Yeah, she made it all better.

Man, another Monday today, even if it was a Wed.. It started out with my wife unable to find her cell phone. She then took the 4 kids ( were watching 2 of them during the day ((nearly 6:30 p.m. and they are still here)) for the next couple of weeks). She calls me asking for a forgotten check here,from another mom. I said I would just take it there ( Basketball camp ). Well, after I spent 20 minutes trying to find the keys, I call her back. But she has my cell phone, and I cant remember my cell phone number. No I don't call myself very often. I finally find the number in my PDA. I call her and guess what, yep, she has both sets of keys.

So she comes back home. During the time, I keep calling her cell phone to hear it ring. You would never guess where I found it, in the trunk of the car. Don't ask.
So she gets back, gets the check, cell phone, ect. and heads back to camp. I get back to work. I already had an 8 oclock conference call that lasted for an hour. I am on support this week, so that means any issues coming up during the day comes to me. Fortunately that part was quite. I find out, I made a change to an interface, in production ie immediate effect, last night and my correction did not take place. Thus the on-call person got called at 1 a.m. and she wasnt happy, who happens to be my supervisor. Its just 9:10 a.m.

It spirals from there. I worked on a interface testing it to go live in less than 2 weeks. Total frustration, in which I won't go into details. Let it just be known it sucks ok. I can't make the changes I need to because some Nimrod put the same transactions I need to change in live. So any changes I make will effect what is currently being used. Hence last nights episode.

I did manage to get out by 5 p.m., just one hour after I should be able to. I then vacuumed and put away clothes. My wife, bless her heart, made a great dinner. We had a big baked potatoe, steak smothered with mushrooms and vegetables.

I know her day was no better. She had to deal with the 4 kids, all day running to and fro. It's now 6:30 p.m. and I don't foresee the parents till a little after 7 p.m. So the evening is pretty much shot.

The rain finally quite and the sun is out, going down now. The grass is drenched and looks like it grew 3 inches today alone.

Well it's already Wed., use to be called hump day. Last night the kids played their T-ball game, only 3 more to go. It was an 8 oclock game and I couldnt help but notice everyone looking at their watches 20 minutes prior of end game. The game last for 1 hour. Fortunately this is during Summer but it's taking a toll. The kids are still sleeping and it's nearly 8 a.m. Normally they would be up by 6:30 easily.

Had to take the trash out this morning and it's pouring down rain here. A couple of mothers, my wife included, was hoping the T-ball game would be rained out but it waited till early morning. Now it looks like a typhoon out there. I showered,ect already and after taking the trash out had to redress, being drenched. Oh well.

I appreciate everyone's feedback on the blog, it's nice to know I am not the only one insane. Yes, I am drinking my coffee already. And yes, yesterday, I continued to pee my brains out. If nothing else, my kidneys are getting a good cleansing.

Yesterday at work, it seemed like another Monday. Man it was crazy, I couldnt leave till after 6 p.m., starting at 8. It made for a long day but it went by pretty fast, due to the busyness.

Well it's Tuesday morning already and Monday wasn't too bad. Kelli (my beautiful wife) is watching a friends kids this next two weeks. So we have 4 in our house. This week is basketball camp that takes up 9 to 12 for these 5 days. Next week we have Vacation Bible School that will take up 8:30 to 12. This is one of the reasons Kelli is watching the other two kids. July schedule is crazy, I will have to post it separately.

Yesterday we started a diet. It actually isnt quote unquote a diet, rather watch what we eat and drink lots of water. I drunk 8 bottles of those bottle waters. Let me tell you, I thought I pee'd my brains out. Lucky I work at home and the bathroom is close. Supposedly, by drinking a certain amount of water (dependant upon your weight) it helps you loose your weight. I guess we will see, if I can hold on too it.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I am obese, but I could lose some. I am 5'9", 180 pounds. So I am drinking my coffee and will hit water shortly. Gotta have the coffee first though. I drink Folgers, dark, black.

I also tried Pepsi Free this weekend. It wasn't bad. I ended up buying a six pack. I have been an avid Pepsi drinker for as long as I can recall. Supposedly this has the same taste with half the sugar. It wasnt bad tasting, unlike those diet colas I tried. I can just taste that carcinogenic sacharrin in those (shudders).

Your probably reading this and thinking, this guys babbling but heh, I took tylenol PM last night to get some sleep and just drinking my coffee. No on-call this week! yeah !

On Flag Day, Supreme Court Rejects Pledge Case
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
June 14, 2004

(2nd Add: Includes comments by the Catholic League and Focus on the Family.)

(CNSNews.com) - It is okay for students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court Monday dismissed the case brought by atheist Michael Newdow.

The justices decided that Newdow lacked the legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of the Pledge, apparently since he does not have custody of his daughter.

Newdow sued the Elk Grove (Calif.) Unified School District on behalf of his daughter, saying she should not be forced to invoke God's name while reciting the Pledge at school.

Two years ago, a federal appeals court in San Francisco agreed with Newdow that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was an unconstitutional "endorsement of religion" because of the phrase "one nation under God."

Writing for the three-judge panel, Judge Alfred T. Goodwin said, "A profession that we are a nation 'under God' is identical, for Establishment Clause purposes, to a profession that we are a nation 'under Jesus,' a nation 'under Vishnu,' a nation 'under Zeus,' or a nation 'under no god,' because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion."

By dismissing the appeal on a technicality, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday disappointed some Americans who hoped for a definitive ruling.

"The Supreme Court's decision to reverse the 9th Circuit and uphold our national Pledge of Allegiance complete with the phrase 'one Nation under God' is a victory for common sense," said the Center for Individual Freedom. "Nevertheless, the Court's decision to turn back the challenge to the Pledge on technical grounds is disappointing given numerous justices' consistent approval of references to our nation's shared religious heritage and history."

The Center for Individual Freedom filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that the words 'one Nation under God' do not violate the Establishment Clause. The group argued that the Founding Fathers did not intend for the First Amendment to discriminate against religion.

"It was designed to ensure citizens could celebrate and practice their religion freely," the group said in a press release. "The Court should have taken this opportunity to reiterate what we all know to be true -- a public mention of the word 'God' does not violate the Constitution."

The Center for Individual Freedom calls it "appropriate and symbolic" that the Supreme Court dismissed the case on Flag Day, adding, "We just wish that the Court would have been more emphatic in its pronouncement."

The American Center for Law and Justice said the Supreme Court was right to dismiss Newdow's lawsuit.

"While the court did not address the merits of the case, it is clear that the Pledge of Allegiance and the words 'under God' can continue to be recited by students across America," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ, which also filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.

"By dismissing this case and removing the appeals court decision, the Supreme Court has removed a dark cloud that has been hanging over one of the nation's most important and cherished traditions -- the ability of students across the nation to acknowledge the fact that our freedoms in this country come from God, not government."

Sekulow said it doesn't matter that the Supreme Court did not address the merits of the case: "The fact is the legally flawed decision of the appeals court is removed and students across America can begin the new school year in the fall by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance including the phrase 'under God.'

"The high court had several ways it could have disposed of this troubling decision and we're delighted that the suit has been dismissed and the Pledge remains intact."

"America's founders recognized that our rights, as the Declaration of Independence states, are 'endowed by the Creator.' In fact, they staked their 'lives, [their] fortunes and their sacred honor' on that truth," said John H. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute.

"We had hoped that the Court would set the record straight once and for all by confirming the unequivocal affirmation of thirteen Supreme Court Justices across four decades that state-led recitation of 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance does not violate the Establishment Clause," he said.

"While we are pleased that this time-honored tradition can continue, The Rutherford Institute remains committed to standing in defense of the constitutionality of this practice should any future challenges arise," Whitehead said.

"It is too bad that the substantive issue of whether recitations of the Pledge in school are legal wasn't addressed. It is regrettable only because there is a concerted effort in this country, led by organizations that are openly hostile to religion, to eliminate all public vestiges of our religious heritage," said Catholic League President William Donohue.

"This movement, which is at root totalitarian, seeks to impose a radical secular agenda on all Americans. It must be stopped dead in its tracks if religious liberty is to survive," Donohue. "This is not a good day for the radical secularists. Which is why it is such a good day for everyone else."

"Yet again, a ruling of the 9th Circuit - the most overturned circuit court in the nation - has been voided," said Focus on the Family Chairman Dr. James C. Dobson.

"However, the Supreme Court does not emerge from this case the defender of America's moral and Christian heritage - in fact, it showed a lack of principle that is truly appalling," said Dobson.

"Instead of settling this question once and for all, the Court has left the nation to wonder if God's name will be found unconstitutional if another challenge is brought in a procedurally correct fashion," he said.

"By refusing to rule on the substance of the case, the Supreme Court has left the door open for additional challenges to our nation's godly foundation - one which is reflected on our currency, in our government buildings - including the Supreme Court's own chamber - and in the oaths we take," Dobson added.