Workshop Today

by John [ posted: 20.Jul.2006 07:29 AM ] [dura-link][I]
Well today I am at a teacheer workshop. I would personally rather bite my toes off!

Hope this turns out better than expected.

Next year's season

by John [ posted: 16.Dec.2005 10:32 AM ] [dura-link][I]
I have started the worst part of volleyball... getting games for next year. This process is made more difficult because UIL will not come out with the class and district alignments until the second week in February. We might actually end up with another team in our district this next year. We were in a two team district in 2004 but the other school dropped volleyball for the 2005 season. It makes getting in the playoffs easy, but finding games hard.

Plains Basketball Brackets

by John [ posted: 1.Dec.2005 11:57 AM ] [dura-link][I]
Here are the brackets for the JV tournament.
Plains JV Tournament Schedule.xls (268.5 kb)

Questions about my life

by John [ posted: 30.Aug.2005 09:19 PM ] [dura-link][I]
Over the past few months I have begun to wonder about the path I have chosen for my life. I am a Christian and I know that all things work for the good of those that follow Christ, but the questions still arise. Is coaching my choice or God's will? I know that I would be a more effective teacher if I did not coach, but am I making a big enough difference in the lives of the players to justify my coaching career? Would the benefit to the classroom kids justify not coaching? Would I be a better husband if I did not cach? Would I be a better father if I did not coach? Would I be a batter Christian if I did not coach?

Caution Tape and the Rock Pile

by John [ posted: 24.Jul.2005 08:50 PM ] [dura-link][I]
The school I work at is currently undergoing work on the roof. In front of the school are several, 5 foot tall, piles of rocks that will someday, hopefully soon, be put to use on top of the building. I took my children with me to the school to try and get some things done and my oldest child noticed that there was a man putting barrels on either side of the piles. Our conversation proceeded something like this:

  "Dad, what is that guy doing with those barrels?"
  "He is putting the barrels around the rocks so that he can tie that yellow 'caution' tape to them."
  "Why does he want to put 'caution' tape on them?"
  "So that people will see the tape and stop before they run into the rocks."
  After a 3 or 4 second pause... "Dad?"
  "Yes, son?"
  "Won't the people see the ROCKS?"
  Another pause... "You know son, you're right. You would think the people could see the big pile of rocks before they could see the small tape."

Last Night's Prayers

by John [ posted: 24.May.2005 11:08 AM ] [dura-link][I]
Last night my youngest was saying her prayers and going through what I thought was an endless list when she paused. She asked me what the guys had been hunting at her grandparents. Afer I answered, she continued with her prayer. Her prayer ended something like this: "... and God thank you for the prairie dogs that the guys were shooting. Amen"

What is Cool?

by John [ posted: 21.Apr.2005 10:16 AM ] [dura-link][I]
Last night I talked to a Mission Friends teacher at our church about our middle child. She shared with me a story that I thought I should pass on.

The teacher was talking to the class about how God made all the animals and plants. She gave each child a picture of a flower that they could color. My boy, being four years old, decided that he did not want to color that kind of picture. He told the teacher that he was not going to color because the picture was not cool. It didn't have Power Rangers. It didn't have Ninja Turtles. It wasn't cool. He wasn't going to color.

Tee Ball

by John [ posted: 20.Apr.2005 11:19 AM ] [dura-link][I]
Our oldest son started tee ball practices this week. I think that he will do fine. It is most fun to watch the kids learning what to do after they hit or catch the ball. So far he has two practices and he has had a great time at both.

Being a coach I am trying not to get in the way of the tee ball coaches that are there teaching with the practice.

A shiny head

by John [ posted: 18.Oct.2004 09:45 AM ] [dura-link][I]
Yesterday at church, we were getting ready to go when Ethan ran in the other direction. When he came back I asked him where he had gone. His response was "I saw a shiny head."  Since Poppa was not at church, Ethan had mistaken someone else's bald head for his grandfather's.

Seventh Commandment

by John [ posted: 2.Jul.2004 04:56 PM ] [dura-link][I]
Today I was reading some bible stories to my children. One of the stories was about the ten commandments. As I was reading through them, the seventh commandment was written "Husbands and wives should treat each other with respect." As I read this one, Zach turned, looked at Heather, and said, "Did you hear that Mom?"

The logic of a 2-year old...

by John [ posted: 28.Apr.2004 09:58 AM ] [dura-link][I]
Last night Heather and I were getting our youngest ready for bed when I asked her if she wanted to go to sleep. She shook her and said "Bed, no." I then asked her if she wanted her mother to go to bed. She answered "Mama, bed, no." Trying to work some logic into the conversation I told her that it was time for someone to go to bed, so I asked her who she thought should go. She thought about the question for a second, saw her oldest brother playing in the corner, said "Ack, bed", laughed and tightly hugged her mother.

Oh! What a boy.

by John [ posted: 20.Apr.2004 01:23 PM ] [dura-link][I]
We are currently in the process of potty training Ethan. I went to pick him up yesterday and the sitter brought me a bag of Ethan's clothes. My first thought, which was obvious to her, was that he had an accident. She told me that he did not have an accident, and she told me the story about the bag...


Ethan was outside with the other kids in the backyard when he ran over to Stacie and told her that he needed to "tee-tee". She told him that she would take him inside, but he told her that he could tee-tee where he was and began to pull down his pants. She turned him away from the other kids so that they would not see what was happening. She turned to watch the other kids and then looked back to see Ethan squating in her yard. It was too late for her to stop him and he finished his business then proceeded to wipe his bottom with his shorts. This was what was in the bag that she gave me at the door.

Ethan and the bathroom

by John [ posted: 19.Nov.2003 10:07 PM ] [dura-link][I]
Tonight on our way to see my inlaws, when we were shopping at a K-Mart, Ethan decided he needed to use the restroom. After taking off his diaper and letting him finish, I put him on the changing table so that I could more easily replace his diaper. While there he asked me why I put him on the table and I tried to explain. I then decided that I needed to use the facilities as long as I was there. After I finished and began to tuck in my shirt, Ethan patted the changing table and asked me if I needed to lay down. Apparently my teaching skills need to be refined.

Volleyball

by John [ posted: 9.Nov.2003 03:23 PM ] [dura-link][I]
It feels good to write again. I have been spending way too much time at school and not enough time with my family. Last night however, I did get to spend some time with my boys. They got to ride home with me from the volleyball game. I don't think they like the volleyball as much as they like the bus. Last night at the game they were sitting with Heather and after several points they would ask if the game was over. Heather would keep telling them that the game was not over yet that it was only a time out or between games. My oldest son then asked "When is it going to be over? I am ready to ride on the bus!!" So, like any father that gets to drive a bus, I took them home with me.

One thing about me driving a bus is that I may be feeding my sons' obsessions with large vehicles. They already love tractors, now they also love the bus, and my youngest son couldn't stop yelling about the "big truck" that passed us one the way home last night.

Well a father has to do what's best for his sons. Maybe, with a little help from me, they can convince Heather that I need an F150 CrewCab. After all, its not a bus, but it is bigger than what I drive now.

P.S. The volleyball team I coach won bi-district last night. Next stop for us is "area".

Back again

by John [ posted: 3.Sep.2003 06:59 PM ] [dura-link][I]
For those few people that read this blog and do not know me, I have a new job. My last job was a network administrator for a school district. My new job is teaching and coaching. One of the things that I miss is the time that I had to spend with my family.

Time has become a very precious commodity in my life. For the last three years I have known that I was going to leave work at 4:00 pm most every day and that very seldom would I be called in during a weekend to fix a problem. Now I know that I am going to be getting home at 6:30 on the good days, 12:00 am on the game days, and working every Saturday for the next two months. Having said this, I want to add that I love my job. Not as much as I love my family, but I do love my job.

The world is plotting against me!!!

by John [ posted: 21.Jun.2003 09:58 PM ] [dura-link][I]
Apparently not every little quirk that my son comes up with is the fault of my father.

My oldest son had surgery on one of his tear ducts last Monday and we are supposed to put drops in his eye to keep it from getting infected. Last night my sons spent the night with my parents and now today my oldest son is demanding that I give him a tissue to dab his eye after I give him his eye drops.

After explaining this to my wife she asked me "Where did that come from?" As I took the tissue to my son, I told her that is was probably my dad that started it all. When I came back from my sons' room, my wife told me that it was her fault.

Sorry Dad. You are only partly to blame.

Poppa Trouble

by John [ posted: 13.Jun.2003 09:04 AM ] [dura-link][I]
If any of you have kids you know how spoiled grandparents can make them. I heard once that many of the problems with raising children could be avoided if you could only spank the grandparents. I have come to believe in this very deeply. My father has often said that his philosophy is "Grandparenting Through Revenge".

What has gotten to me over the past several weeks is that one night my parents were at our house and my father decided to put my boys to bed.

So far, so good.

Not knowing any different, my father decided to tuck my oldest boy into his bed. The problem is that now I have to tuck the sheets and cover in every night before he will let me leave the room. This normally would not be a problem, but my oldest son often "forgets" to do things after he is in bed. And to make things worse, he forgets several times. This in turn causes me to take him back to his room and tuck in his covers again because when he gets out of bed the covers come untucked. No longer am I able to tell him to go get in bed by himself. The boy will not lay still until the covers are tucked in.

I know that this is all part of my father's evil plan to make me "pay for my raising", but I keep trying to convince him that I am paying for my brother's and sister's raising.

I was an angelic child, my father just refuses to admit it.

Re-rant on Addictive Personalities

by John [ posted: 8.Jun.2003 09:21 PM ] [dura-link][I]
I talked once about my addictive personality. What I found out this past week is that my wife has an addictive personality that would make the entire employee list at the Ford clinic rethink their calling in life.

My wife graduated in December of last year (of which I am very proud) with a degree in education. All spring, while substituting for other teachers, she has been talking about wanting to put a fish tank in her classroom when she gets a job. Well, to make matters worse, we decided to take our children to see Finding Nemo last weekend. Now my wife REALLY wants a salt-water fish tank with, of course, a clown fish and a blue tang.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE.

No one would have a salt water fish tank with only two fish!! So what has she done? GO ONLINE, of course. Last night my wife stayed up till 2 or 3 am looking at all the possibilities of things you can put in a salt water fish tank. She told me about star fish, sea cucumbers, tangs, snails, anemones, sea squirts, live rock, live sand, sea fans, polyps, and on, and on, and on.

All this time I thought she was the normal one in the family. I thought she was the one that would balance out my obsessions. As it turns out she has been deceiving me all this time.

She is the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing.

My New Lawn Mower

by John [ posted: 8.Jun.2003 02:27 PM ] [dura-link][I]
I broke down and bought a new lawn mower yesterday. It is the first lawn mower I have ever bought. The last lawn mower I had was given to me by my brother-in-law because he said it was not working very well and he wanted to buy a new one for himself. That lawn mower lasted me for three summers. Not bad for the price.

Then last week the lawn mower decided that it would not run for more than five minutes at a time and that it needed ten minutes to rest before it would start again. Now that I write it out, that really doesn't seem like a bad idea. If only I could convince my wife of that.

So yesterday I bought a Scott's Classic push reel mower from Home Depot. Now I did not buy this push reel mower for environmental reasons like some people would. I heard an ad the other day about how much polution a gas lawn mower makes, but that had nothing to do with my purchase. I bought this mower because I have three young children.

When I go outside for anything, my children want to go with me. I am very thankful for this. I have seen children that would sit in front of the television for hours on end instead of going outside to play. I do not want my children to do that. But this did make it difficult to mow the lawn in the past.

Today, however, I mowed the lawn while my two boys were playing in the yard 6 feet away. The boys loved it because they were playing in the yard and watching me mow at the same time. Another benefit of this mower is that it is very easy to push. It is no harder to mow my lawn now than when my 5 hp gas mower was working. Now granted I have let my grass get a little long and the mower has a tendency to roll over some of the grass, but the physical effort required is the same.

The best thing about this mower is that my boys actually mowed some of the grass today. My oldest boy is 3 1/2 and he could push the mower through the shorter grass. My other son is 2 and he had a harder time. But the fact is that they did mow some of the grass. With a gas powered mower I probably would not have let them help until they were 10 or 12. If I can keep them interested in helping me mow for the next couple of years, then hopefully, by the time they are 5 and 6, I can force them to start mowing the lawn by themselves.

Now that is justification for a push reel mower.

University of Calgary = University for Criminals?

by John [ posted: 5.Jun.2003 08:20 AM ] [dura-link][I]
ZDnet News has an article about how people can Learn virus writing skills in Canada. The University of Calgary is currently planning to present a course to teach students how to write maliciously coded programs. There are enough viruses out in the wild right now that we do not need to be teaching a course on making more. The only thing that can come from this course is to give the few people that really want to write a viral program a springboard to jump off of. Not only do they not have to find the basics out for themselves, they can now be taught in class how to avoid the pitfalls of writing a virus that does not propagate as fast as it should.

Maybe the Univesity of Calgary will be the system hit the hardest. Every student makes mistakes on their first programs, maybe, hopefully, one student will accidentally and completely wipe out the entire U of C computer system. Now that, would be justification.