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I left Nathan alone with my Macbook. He discovered the cool little app called Photobooth. This is the resulting library:

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My wife called me home for lunch so I could chase a marmot out of the engine compartment of our minivan. We managed to chase it out of our car, but didn't catch it, so it will likely be back.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

We where playing outside last night, and the last flying B-24 flew over our house several times.

3 vintage bombers where in town as part of a national tour.

Andee and I created a small patio in the middle of our yard, to prevent my new outdoor fireplace from scorching our yard.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 5:26 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

One of my fun habits of late is asking, "Don't worry, I am not a girl" questions.

I stopped drinking Dr. Pepper. Now once a week I go around and ask a random co-worker, "Do I look like I have lost any weight?" They get this confused look on their face, not knowing the politically correct way to answer. After an awkward four or five seconds, I re-assure them "Don't worry I am not a girl, you can tell me the truth."

Today I asked my one of my co-workers how old he thought I was. He was only off by 20%... I guess my "wisdom" is really effecting my co-worker's image of me... ;-)

Posted by Josh Reighley at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Julia is no longer a Kindergartener.

She is not happy about not being able to got to school for a few months.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

I invented a new game for the car. As we drive around town.

Daddy: "Look over there, I see a Jet airplane"

Kids: "Where???"

Daddy: "Oh, wait, I was confused, that is a bird."

Daddy: "Look, A snake!"

Kids: "Where??"

Daddy: "Oh, wait, I was confused, that was a highway stripe!"

Pretty soon the kids get confused too, and start seeing dinosaurs and fire engines.

Mommy gets annoyed.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had to work Saturday.. Only got one day off this weekend..

Andee and I went to the Selah concert in Spokane. We have enjoyed their music for 5 or 6 years now, so it was good to see them in person.

It is really neat to worship with an assortment of people who you have never met.

Keith Cooper was with them, and he made some music that I didn't know was possible with a Guitar... Pretty blown away by it actually. I made my first iTunes purchase..

Posted by Josh Reighley at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Julia lost her first tooth. The tooth fairy left her some money, and she gave it to Nathan for his 4th birthday.

I changed the starter in my 93 Buick Regal Grand Sport. It was not too fun, but I saved 150 bucks and it only took by 3 hours. My arms hurt, and my fingernails are dirty.

Tonight we are having a birthday party for Nathan. He is turning 4. His party is at the Bounce and Jump place. They have about 10 bouncy castles.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

This movie was created with 95% pure macBook components. The only component used in production was my bluetooth headset, which I used to add the narration. The movie was taken with the built in iSight camera, and edited with the iMovie software.

The kids have been taking some martial arts classes. Nathan has extraordinary body awareness, and taught himself to do cartwheels. He figured out that the cartwheel was ideal for navigating the hula hoop obstacle. I am quite surprised. I think his athleticism comes from his mama, and his cleverness comes from me. He is not quite 4

Update, I jumped the gun on posting the youtube embed.. Hopefully it will be processed soon, keep trying back.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 8:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Nathan appears to be potty trained. At his age (almost 4) it was pretty easy... It cost me 3 M&M's per peepee and 6 M&M's per poopoo.. The key phrase that sealed the deal is "You get to pick them out"

Once he agreed to the deal, he has only had one accident, and went poopoo for the first time without any encouragement or fanfare at all..

On a side note, the flu is rampaging through our family. I am the only one who has not had the full onslaught. I still feel a bit buggy, so it may come at any time. Nathan puked all over the Walmart today. Good times...

Posted by Josh Reighley at 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

We did a little remodeling job last weekend. We have a family room that has been used quite hard by our children. the carpet was stained with 3 or 4 years worth of apple juice and the like.

We recently refinanced our house, and for the first time in a long time we are not absolutely broke. We spend the majority of our time in the room, so I figured that would be the room we should improve.

We shopped around for quite a while, and finally settled on some laminate flooring at the Habitat for Humanity Surplus store. That store is quite neat, as it has a lot of new and used home improvement stuff at very reasonable prices. They happened to have 300 sq feet of flooring, and our room is 300 square feet minus a few here and there for a tile floor and stairs. The price was pretty low, but probably not unbeatable.

Friday, Andee and I moved the furniture out of that room. Saturday morning, we tore out the carpet and removed all of the moldings. Destruction always seems to be a quick job for one reason or another. Within an hour or two, we had a bare concrete floor and an empty room to work with.

My Dad and my friend Dean came over and worked all weekend to help me get the job done. For the most part, Dean and I did the repetitions and tedious parts and Dad did the math intensive cutting parts.

Our flooring was the tongue and groove glue together kind. Each piece would have it's tongue coated with a elmer's like glue, and they you would tap the tongue into the groove of the neighboring boards until the glue seeped out the seams.

It goes together pretty quickly once you get going. There where two agrevating things that we encountered during our project. The first was gaps between the planks. I think that most of these where caused by irregularies in the surface of our floor. Some may have also been caused by irregular boards, but I am not sure. For a long time we tried pounding these cracks out of the floor. This didn't work. Often our pounding would twist the boards that we where sliding our board into, and we would wind up chasing the cracks around. Other times we could get rid of most of the crack but the outside edges wouldn't be flush, so we would have the same problem when we installed the next row. Finally we figured out that it was best to let the cracks fall where they are, and to focus on keeping the outside edges flush with one another.

The second issue that was annoying was needing too short of a board at the very end. Usually yous stagger the seams a little bit, using a full length board in one row, a 1/3 length board in the next row, and a 2/3 length board in the next, then starting the pattern again. On one of our rows, we found that the 2/3 length board, plus 4 full length board left about 2 inches worth that needed to be filled at the end. We had to learn to pre-measure and make sure that that didn't happen again whenever the room changed shape.

After the floor was together we found that the crack filler stuff works quite well at hiding the imperfections.

We spent all day Saturday, and all of Sunday afternoon on the project, and it was pretty well complete by 6PM.

Another thing to keep in mind when shopping for laminate flooring, the moldings and trim are probably the most expensive part. Be sure to keep this in mind when you are estimating your costs.

The floor looks nice, and I believe it will be a lot more resistant to staining!

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:18 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Ancestry.com gave me a 3 day free trial to their website, which I must say is quite cool. In 3 days, I was able to get a massive list of possible relatives to research. Here is my rough draft family tree. (Must set up account to view)

The research is pretty easy to do on the ancestry.com site. They have a lot of family trees that you can copy to guide you. These are assembled by other users, and are not trustworthy, but can get you started. With a paid subscription, you can click on a name in your family tree, and see census records, military records, immigration records and media records that are possible matches for that person. Most of these records have scanned documents, so with one click, you can view the actual hand written census sheet that your relative is listed on.

I have been able to track my Patriarchal name back to a man name Charles Reilly who was born in 1807 in Ireland. When he moved to the United States, he began spelling his name Reighley, just like I do. He got married in Fredrick Maryland to Caroline Cronise. One of the history books indicated that a Charles Reighley pastored a church there for a couple of "troubled years" in 1832, but I am not positive that this was the same guy, as I do see other Charles Reighley's that have lived in that area.

In the late 1830's he moved to Michigan, I believe he was an army chaplain, and definately pastored an Episcopal church there. He had 6 kids with his first wife, including my great-great grandfather, James Braiden Reighley.

It appears that he moved to the Mississippi in the late 1850's and his wife passed away there, and he remarried. His second wife was a school teacher, Heloise DeMailly, and they had a daughter. There appears to be quite a collection of information on Ms De Mailly's life in the Ker Family papers, Archived at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It looks like they have portraits of Heloise DeMailly Reighley, Marie Reighley Watkins, as well as a portrait of Mrs. Watkins with her infant son. They also have several letters written from Miss De Mailly to one of her pupils, Mary Ker. If I am ever in that neighborhood, I will have to check it out.

Rev Reighley passed away in 1862. The folks in the forums seem to think he died in DC, but I haven't seen any documentation.

Anyway, it must have been interesting being a Irish born Yankee living in Mississippi in 1858-1862. I am sure there is a story there, but it is fairly unlikely that we will hear it. At least two of his sons, Charles Jr. and James Braiden, where in the Union army. Charles Jr, died of his war wounds. I suspect that Charles Sr. may have been an Union army chaplain during the civil war. Don't know for sure though. I will keep digging.

It is amazing how many people's legacy boils down to born on , died on, son of, husband of, father of.... I am going to research several other relatives and see if I can gather much of their story.

If anyone finds this post via a search engine, and has more information on these folks, I would love to hear about them. Please leave a comment or drop me an email!

Posted by Josh Reighley at 1:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here is a short documentary about the history of Felts Field, Nathan's favorite hang out.

Spokane used to be quite the hopping place!

Posted by Josh Reighley at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have been teaching Julia chess.. I have also been helping out at her school when they play chess. Chess is a great game for kids.

It teaches them to analyze their environment and react accordingly.

It teaches them that their actions have consequences.

It teaches them to plan ahead.

It teaches them that people think in different ways.

It teaches them that there is more than one way to achieve a goal.

It teaches them to focus on the task at hand.

It teaches them to keep trying even when things are not looking great.

It teaches them that you can learn a lot from losing.

It teaches you that no matter how good you think you are, you can be humbled quite quickly.

It teaches them that sometimes you have to sacrifice something of value in order to reach your goal.

It teaches sometimes there are intagibles that are more valuable than tangibles.

It teaches that one bad move can ruin your entire plan.

The cool thing is that while they do all of this learning in a low stakes game, these lessons translate nicely into pretty much every decision making process that they go through in life.

Julia learned pretty quickly at the age of 5 1/2.. I have read that that is an ideal time to get them started. I have also found that her experience playing chess makes it easier to discuss her decision making in the real world.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 1:52 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Andee has been out of town for the last 5 days attending the big MOPS convention in Nashville.. So I took the week off, and have been playing stay at home daddy.

The kids are getting tired of bacon and eggs for breakfast and Homestyle bakes for dinner, but other than that all has been well.

Went to Valleyfest today. It was pretty fun, but the STA shuttle service stunk and we probably wasted more than an hour waiting to get there and back. Julia caught a fish, and gave it to the Union Gospel Mission.

Idaho is down 17-0 to Oregon State so far.. It isn't halftime yet.

Got wrapped up in a interesting discussion on the Monday Morning Insight blog the other day. It always troubles me how good Christians can assume the worst about each other without investigation.

Started teaching some chess to Julia's classmates. That is interesting. I taught Julia a few weeks ago, and she loves it. She is learning fast.. May give me a run for my money in another few years. I played quite a bit in Junior High and High School, and really liked it. I was good, but not anywhere near unbeatable.

Got stung by a yellowjacket yesterday. We where at Felts field, and I put Nathan on my shoulders to see an airplane lift off. I tried to secure him by grabbing onto his feet, but apparently he had a bee on his shoe.. Ouch!

Found a private pilot's video course at my public library. It is quite good, but also quite boring.

Andee should be back tomorrow night after dark...

Posted by Josh Reighley at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

I have been too busy doing the routine summer stuff to stop and say much on the blog lately. Andee and the kids went to Oregon for a week they got back a week ago Saturday. My sleep has been kinda messed up ever since. When the family is not around, there is no real pressure to sleep at a reasonable time, and as such, often I didn't get enough sleep. Oddly enough, it is actually a bit difficult for me to sleep when it is quiet. I am not too used to that.

I kept very busy. Went out to dinner with somebody or had a meeting almost every night. Kept me out of trouble.

The family has been back for a week now. They have been running pretty much non-stop getting the final playdates of the summer in before school starts. Julia had her orientation day at her new school. Nathan has his sometime next week. We spent an afternoon at some friend's lake cabin, and had a great time.

BSF starts the Monday after labor day. I can't wait. Romans this year.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 3:04 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

One of the local newspaper blogs, Huckleberries online posed the question "What's Wrong With Saving It For Marriage?" Apparently a couple saved their first kiss for marriage, and that had caught a lot of interest by the audience.

Predictably some of the comments where fairly negative on the idea:

"Foolish"

"Test Drive!
Test Drive!
Test Drive!"

"that which is worth waiting for is probably cool to get really early too"

"I never buy a pair of shoes without trying them on first."

"Would you buy a car without test driving it first to see how it handles?"

My comment was "If you need a test drive, you are testifying to your spouse from the beginning that your love is conditional."

Coincidentally, I last night, I was listening to a Mars Hill sermon where Pastor Mark Driscoll suggested three criteria for selecting a wife. Is she breathing? Does she love Jesus? Will she put up with me?

I wonder if much of our crisis in marriage isn't caused by overexposure to romantic story lines in media? If we marry a girl because she meets 20 or 30 items on our criteria list, isn't our love pretty conditional? Is it really love at all? Or are we just entering a contract in order to gain something that we want?

The culture that we live in most likely sees unconditional love as foolishness. After all a husband's love for his wife is supposed to be a picture of Christ's love for his church. (Ephesians 5:25) If the message of the cross is seen as foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18), should a biblical marriage be seen any differently?

So, what do you think? Is unconditional love foolish?

Posted by Josh Reighley at 9:16 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Today I was bringing the laundry upstairs from our laundry room. (We had a good week's worth down there) On one of my trips, I heard Nathan say somthing from his bedroom. He had gone to bed about 20 minutes earlier. After I had finished my laundry hauling chore, I went to close the door to our stairs. I was kinda surprized to find Nathan soundly sleeping on the floor in the hallway right behind the door that I had propped open.

I picked the boy up to take him back into his room. His eyes shook open.. "Daddy, I can't sleep" he said.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 1:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Andee and I finished our study of Philippians last week. That last chapter is something else! I think that there are at least 3 passages worth memorizing.

Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -think about such things.

And Philippians 4:11-13

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

As is often the case when I study the Bible, Our pastor used that last passage in his message on Sunday.

We started in on Romans today.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 1:32 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

So this was by far the busiest weekend I have had in a very long time.  Friday we had a Barbeque at my parents house.  About 35 friends and relatives dropped by.  During the barbeque, I made 2 trips to the airport to pick up even more people.

Saturday we spend much of the moring cleaning.  I mowed the lawn, and we Organized all of our outdoor stuff. 

Saturday evening, My sister had a wedding reception, and we attended that from 7 until midnight.

Sunday morning, we went to Church, then came home and got all set up for a Barbque of our own.   We didn't have Birthday parties for our kids in March and April, so they got a combined Birthday party in June.  We had about 35 people ages 2 months to 70 years.  It was quite a bit of fun.

Andee and I are both quite tired.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 5:22 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Yesterday, my wife was gone, and he kids where playing in the house..

 Suddenly there was an eery silence. 

A few minutes later, Nathan came in and announced, "We are cutting Eunice".. 

(Eunice is my Daughter's stuffed Unicorn.)

 I went into Julia's room and sure enough, Eunice had quite a noticable haircut.

It is funny how attached parents are to their kids favorite toys.  I was a bit upset.  Julia was quite happy with the new look.   She actually did a pretty good job...   Her bed is still covered in loose unicorn hairs.   Eunice is quite well loved, and her mane was pretty matted and tangled.  Julia fixed her! 

Anyway, I took the sissors away and asked her have her mommy help her next time.  

When Andee got home I told her about it, and she had the same reaction I did.  She wanted to be upset, but it is her unicorn. 

Posted by Josh Reighley at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

We have been traveling over the last week or so.   We took our kids to Oregon to stay with their Grandma, and Andee and I left for Hawaii, where my Sister is getting married today.

Hawaii has been pretty fun.   We are staying on the North Shore of Oahu.  It is fairly rural here, aside from the houses right on the beach, and the surfing traffic. 

We went hiking one afternoon last week.   Seemed like a pretty darn cool place for me.  A trail leads up from the airstrip that is used mostly for skydiving and Glider operations. up the cliff to a geocache that I was after.   The airfield was a old military base, and the trail had a warning sign that I found quite interesting.  "Active Military Training Area,  Please remain on the trail"  I did.  ;-)

We where driving through a park yesterday, and I said to my wife, "Hey, look at those chicks."  She was kinda startled that I would talk like that, but looked at the Bikini wearing surfer girls walking along side the road tring to figure out what I thought was so interesting.  "No",  I had to explain,  "There is a hen, and 6 little chicks eating in the parking lot."

Posted by Josh Reighley at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Sorry I haven't written much.   Kinda been coasting for the last week or so.  We have a big vacation coming up, and I have been spending most of my energy counting down the days until we leave.

I fixed our van.  It has been running rough for the last month or so.  The check engine light has turned on periodically.  Ran down to the local auto parts store and borrowed their code scanner, and it indicated our Oxygen sensor was going bad.  Had to break out my ramps and my sled to get find it, but changing it wasn't much more difficult than swapping out a spark plug.

Nathan went to the parts store with me.   He likes to charm the clerks.  Especially the female ones.  He usually opens up with "I got a scooter for my Birthday"   His birthday was in April.  If you are ever looking for a good present for a 3 year old, a three wheeled scooter has Nathan's strong endorsement.

On a related topic, Nathan's favorite word right now is "Actually".  Big sophisticated word for a 3 year old. 

I have been hooked on "Deadly Catch" on Discovery Channel.   It seems to be all that is on anymore.  It is rather slow, and pretty much all the same, but it still keeps you hooked.   Kinda reminds me of watching the America's cup sailboat races.  Except for bigger waves, More ice, and slightly rougher crew.  Lets call it extremely blue collar America's cup.

I have slept 3 hours out of the last 40.  My sense of humor gets a bit distorted at this stage of sleep deprivation.   Sorry if I am totally goofy.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It has been a fairly uneventful week.  Nathan (3) is growing up.  Earlier this week he was in our bed at 6 AM, and he started talking in his sleep.  He was pretty loud.  "I need some more money!"  He dosed off for a while.  "Guys,  can I please have some money?" he asked again a few minutes later.  Since he said please, I slipped a quarter into his clinched hand.  Andee and I where chuckling at him.  He seemed to be sound asleep.  "Guys, why you laughing?" he yelled, agitated.  That didn't help his cause much.

 Sunday we went to see the African Children's Choir at a Life Center.  Our kids where pretty restless, and distracting.  The Life Center is a church that we used to attend before our current church was planted.  They recently built a very large and modern facility.  The auditorium is a huge square room with the stage in the corner.  We sat down toward the very front, at the outer edge next to the aisle that is against the wall.  Because the corner of the building has a bit of an addition on it to house the stage, there where two structural columns on the wall, just across the aisle from where we where sitting.  During the 30 minutes we waited for the performance to start, we allowed the kids to play in the aisle.  Nathan, who isn't remotely interested in potty training yet, discovered these two pillars, and pretended that the little cubby was a urinal.  He didn't remove his diaper or anything, just assumed the position. 

Two weeks left before vacation!

I mowed the lawn today.  It was getting pretty bad, but I was much better off than Jess was.

 I got my PlasmaCAM demo DVD in the mail Friday.   I keep trying to show it off to folks, but nobody is nerdy enough to truly enjoy it.  I bet that machine could pay for itself pretty quickly,  If I happen across a few thousand dollars, perhaps I can start my own metal cutting business.

Tomorrow is my last day of BSF for the year.  I am going to try to go all of the way through Philippians and Romans over the summer. 

Well, that is enough gibberish for one night.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 3:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This weekend I did not go to our local General Aviation airport for the first time in a long time. Usually I take my kids over there 3 or 4 times a week.  It is cheap fun.

 I also didn't run in Bloomsday.  I never have even though I have lived in Spokane for almost all of my life.   In my defense, I did work at a water station a few times.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 5:17 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

We had a very busy weekend.   I hadn't slept much last week, so Friday I went to bed at 7AM and got up at 4PM.  I took Nathan up to his Grandparents where he spent the night for the first time ever.  It went quite well.   I came home, went to bed at 11PM and got up at 6:30AM.

 Saturday we went to the DNA of Relationships Seminar which was pretty good.  Gary was a bit jet-lagged, so his delivery wasn't perfect, but his content was quite powerful and inspirational.  Greg and Michael where quite entertaining and informative.   Many of the concepts where similar to teaching that I had heard at other seminars, but it is always good to bring those ideas back to the forefront.   Seminar speakers usually have to bring some interesting and humorous stories with them in order to keep the audience interested.  The more of these stories you hear, the more you will be reminded of these concepts by other events in your life.

 The event was at Real Life Ministries in Post Falls Idaho.  Last I heard, they where one of the fastest growing churches in the country.  Their building is scary big.  I know several people who go there, and I  listened to their radio broadcast for a year or so, and I am convinced that they are growing for the right reasons.  They do not avoid the tough topics, or sugar coat anything.  They teach the Gospel in a very straightforward and deliberate manner.   They work very hard at caring for their people and getting people involved in ministry.   I have also attended a baptism there, and they do a very good job of making sure that everyone in the building understands exactly what it represents.  Their attendance has grown from 50 people to over 5000, and They are only 8 years old.

We had dinner with some Friends at the White House Grill.  It was pretty extraordinary food.  Inexpensive as well.   Hope you like Garlic!   Also better have reservations.

Today we started the day going to church.   Liferoads is starting a 4 week series on the heart of David.  I am pretty sure that it is going to be a great study!  We are having a huge neighborhood outreach/church cleanup project next weekend.  The weekend after that the African Children's Choir is coming to Spokane.

This evening we had our Financial Peace class.  I would recommend that everyone take this class or another class like it.  If you try to pick it up on your own, you are likely to get it totally wrong.   Nearly everyone in our culture has it wrong.   We still have a lot of work to do, but at least there is a plan.

Sundays are always pretty tough for me.  I get up at 7 and go to bed at 7 or 8.  Rarely do I get any sleep.  

Posted by Josh Reighley at 2:53 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Posted by Josh Reighley at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Today is Nathan's birthday!

 He is 3!

 Happy Birthday Nathan!

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Julia and I watched the Nova episode on the DARPA challenge yesteryday. She seemed to really enjoy it. Which made me pretty happy. Another few years, and I can teach her to program Basic Stamps.

For those who don't know, the DARPA challenge was a contest to create vehicles that where capable of driving themselves over long distances through desert terrain. 5 vehicles managed to navigate a 120 miles course through the desert within 10 hours without human input. Last year's challenge was substantially less successful with all of then teams failing to finish.

Julia's analysis: "This is like The March of the Penguins but with Cars!

Posted by Josh Reighley at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Because I have owned my own business for quite a while, and have ordered packaging supplies before, sometimes I get some pretty unusual catalogs in the mail.

Most of these find quickly find the way into the trash, but today I found new use for one.

I read my Global industries catalog with Nathan, my 3 year old today. He loved it! They sell forklifts, carts, ladders, Material handling equipment, office furniture, packaging supplies and a random assortment of other things a 3 year old would have no need for.

It is funny how insightful he was, For example, as we flipped through the pages, he pointed out the Doctor's
Chair I don't think I would have thought of that. He sure was right though. That was a doctor's chair.

I remember when I was a kid spending hours going through the Sears and Penny's catalogs. It was lots of fun. I wonder if my kid's inherited the same curiosity, or if this is a universal thing?

Posted by Josh Reighley at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Nathan is still in diapers.. For the last year or so I have occasionally tried to talk him into meeting Mr. Potty, but he has always said "No" and acted really uncomfortable.

Last week I asked him if he was ready to go potty on the potty, and he said "In a while"

A few days later, I rephrased my request as a a more close ended question. "When do you want to start going potty on the potty?" His reply: "Saturday"

Only 2 more poopy diapers to change if we are lucky! I think he is old enough that it should be fairly easy.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 7:23 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Nathan got home yesterday, and is doing well. He was pretty much ready to go since Thursday morning, so it was a pretty big relief.

We quickly noticed that both children had grown accustomed to the 24 hour attention from an adult. Yesterday was not too fun in a discipline regard. They are starting to enjoy each other more today. Today I took the kids to the park, and then we went to the airport and watched airplanes take off and land. I saw a pretty little Kitfox take off. I saw that airplane at the airport a few weeks ago, but my kid's didn't have enough patience to see it fly that day. Today I was ready to go way before Nathan was, and Julia agreed that he could watch 3 more airplanes. I was going to allow one more, but let Julia be extra generous to her brother.

Anyway, Nathan is back up and around. We are keeping him out of the way of other kids for a few days so that he doesn't get sick again. I asked the doctor, and she said it was okay to treat him like he was well.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 2:57 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Nathan is a bit sick today. He has been kinda down for the last week. Today Andee took him to the doctor and the doctor determined that he had the start of pnemonia. As soon as he got home the doctor called back and asked that we could bring him back to check his O2 saturation....

Anyway, his O2 saturation was too low, so he is spending the night at the hospital. Hopefully he will be better soon. He is being a really good sport.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

My Daughter Julia turns 5 today!

Julia was born way too early, and got to live in the NICU for the first 6 weeks after she was born. She is big, Strong, Smart, and enjoying Disneyland with her Grammee today.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

See, I am not the only one!

Via - Involutionary Madness

Posted by Josh Reighley at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

I ate Potatoes O'Brien for dinner. I think I might be allergic to Tabasco sauce, as I the roof of my mouth break out in bumps after eating them. I doubt I am allergic to potatoes, but weirder things have happened.

I slept from about 8-4:30.. Wow! That was nice. Andee says that the van is running badly. That is not good news. I don't think Dodge makes good transmissions.

Been hacking on the blog a little bit. Added the annoying flickr photo stream in the left column. Let me know what you think. Also set it up so that I can schedule posts. Moveable type has the functionality built in, but you have to set up a Cron job on your server to trigger the updates periodically.

Played with the Google videos quite a bit. Aside from the graininess it seems to work fairly well.. That may be a useful feature for the church website too.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 2:17 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Wife and kids made it to Portland okay. I slept for 6 hours today, and feel somewhat better...

Got the oil change off of my To-Do check list. I had never changed the oil on this car before. I tried a year or two ago, then changed my mind and decided to have a pro do it. The oil filter on a 93 Buick Regal Gransport is kinda wedged in between the axel, the engine, and the automatic tranny, so it is a real engineering feat to get in there. To make things worse, the easiest way to reach it, leaves your body laying directly below it, so you get an oil shower if you succeed in removing it. After some contemplation I found an awkward contortion that allowed me to reach the filter and lay clear of the fallout. I am not sure you could get an oil filter wrench in there if you wanted to, Luckily mine came off with a firm grip and a prayer. I did get a black dot on my Boomsday voluneer shirt, but I have never loved this one too much anyway.. I will get a new model in May.

I failed to eat. I started to make ramen noodles but wound up aborting the attempt after noticing that all that was left of my water was calcium deposits... Believe it or not, I got sucked into watching CSPAN which is usually highly discouraged under my wife's rules. (My wife doesn't enjoy being bored as much as I do)

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Here is another game I play with my kids...

I smell the left foot. " Wow, That smells like a rose garden!:
I spell the right food. "Eek, that smells like burning tires:

I smell the left foot. "That smells like fresh baked bread"
I smell the right foot. "That smells like fermenting patatos:

Repeat until your brain freezes up.. This a good practice for your own creativity.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 8:18 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

I am cheap, and only pay for limited cable. This gets me channels 1-30. Basically the televised channels, Discovery channel, Regional news channel, Cspan, and public access TV.

The filters are not perfect, so I also get channel 31, and some in the 60-70 range (Bravo, E! and a few others that are rarely worth watching)

When we first signed up, channel 31 was ESPN.. About a year ago, Comcast moved ESPN to channel 33, and put Outdoor life on 31. Bullriding was fun to watch for a few weeks..

December 29th, Comcast moved ESPN to channel 11. This made me quite happy. I don't think my wife was too thrilled.

Today, A cable guy rang our doorbell and said he had to do some work on the pole out back.. When I woke up. Channel 11 was gone.. They sent a guy out and up a 20 foot ladder just to take away ESPN. All of the rest of my channels still work. I wish I could see the cost benefit analysis on that project.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For the last couple of years I have been fantasizing about a super bowl delicacy that I have never seen before.

A sweet cornbread waffle topped with Chili, Sour Cream and Cheese.

I have been afraid to try it.

Today I was feeling fearless, so I poured the cornbread batter into the waffle iron and ....

It worked!

The waffles where a little bit limper than regular waffles, but I think they are going to be okay, Nathan (almost 3) gave them the big thumbs up. He ate my waffle plain, but he refused to eat his own waffle that was smothered in syrup. (Mommy cut it wrong)

Hmmm.. How am I going to make this work with my diet??? Glad I get a free day every week!

Posted by Josh Reighley at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Andee and I are starting our weight loss regimen. We lost about 25 lbs each last year on the Body for Life program. Unfortunately we have kinda strayed over the last 6 months, and have stopped losing weight. Andee is motivated to lose more wieght before we go to Hawaii in June.

I really like the Body for Life program. It makes a lot of sense. Basically you eat 6 times a day, eating small portions of carbohydrates and protiens with each meal. They encourage you to eat lowfat foods, mostly because fat has a lot of calories. I like that you have to focus on eating. On other programs I have felt like the focus was on not eating. I eat all of the time, and the foods that I eat are useful to my body, so my body doesn't really crave much.

The Body for Life program also encourages you to excercise vigorously, doing both wieght training and cardio.

I would like to lose another 40 - 50 lbs.. We will see what happens. I don't care about the numbers so much as I care about looking and feeling a bit better.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 3:07 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Nothing seems to spark a debate on the web like a discussion of spanking.

I believe most people's problems are rooted in the fact that they do things that they know they shouldn't do, and fail to do things that they should do. Basically, they are disobedient. Most of my problems are rooted in my disobedience to my beliefs. I spend money frivolously, then I am broke. I procrastinate, then I am stressed. I neglect my wife, and then she is upset with me.

As such, I think that the most important lesson we need to teach our children is the value of obedience. If we have to use spanking to teach them that, I am not opposed to the concept. This concept of sticking to their principles is important enough that we need to use any available method to get through to our children.

Modeling obedience is much more important than enforcing it. If we discipline in anger, we are disobedient. If we fail to disciple, when discipline is necessary, we are disobedient. If we are disobedient to our beliefs, our children will likely follow our example. We may be able to bully them into compliance, but their heart will still be angry with us. We are hypocrites, telling them to be obedient, while we follow our own passion of the moment.

We need to do the right thing because it is the right thing. If we are doing the right thing in order to avoid the consequences, then we only do the right thing when the consequences exceed our tolerance for risk. Parents will not always be there to increase the consequences.

Introducing spanking into our relationship with the children raises the stakes. It deepens their understanding of obedience, but it also amplifies their understanding of our hypocrisy. If they see us lose our self control, they are not going to believe it is normal to control themselves.

I think we need to have a discipline plan, and stick with it in order to be truly effective.

The best way to have disciplined kids is to have disciplined adults. If you are undisciplined, then there are probably issues within yourself that need to be addressed in order to be the most effective parent you can be.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 1:56 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Usually I put my son to bed each night. He tends to stay in bed and fuss less when Daddy puts him to bed. Tonight, I put him in bed, sang a song to him, prayed for him, and I could tell that he was still too awake for me to walk away.

So I talked to him a bit. Nathan, did you have fun today?

"Yuh" he said.

Nathan is 2. He tends to speak in 4 or 5 word sentences, with a lot of space between each word. His pronunciation is good enough that his parents can usually understand him, but I think most everyone else would be puzzled.

I asked "Did you have fun at your BSF class?"

"Yuh" he said again, with a bit more enthusiasm.

"What did you learn?"

When he gets excited, he tends to be less deliberate about his pronunciation, and it is much more difficult to understand him. He also tends to leave out the pauses between words.

"Ammals, uh budda ludda. wane kudder wud. labba lea fug. rumma sla fund." He got more and more exited. I had absolutely no idea what he was saying, but I listened quietly as if I understood. "wan died fasa. Mout ain wad." he continued unintelligibly.

Then, as clear as can be he said "God gave rainbow"

He, my wife, and my daughter are all studying the same verses each week, so I know that he totally gets it. Genesis 9:1-17

Posted by Josh Reighley at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For the last several months, I have been taking my kids to the local general aviation airport to watch airplanes, takeoff, land, and to watch folks stop for their $100 dollar burgers. The kids love heckling the pilots who walk by with complements. "I like your blue airplane" and the like. It was cheap entertianment at it's best.

A few weeks ago, I started to become interested in flying. Now they have a Sport pilot certification that allows you to fly small airplanes with a lot less time investment than it takes to get a private pilot's license.

Even at half price, though, flying is a very expensive hobby.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 5:01 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Today we where harvesting Corn stalks out of a stranger's yard to use as decoration for our Church's annual Harvest Party.

Andee was cutting the corn stalks down, I was digging out the roots, and Julia (4) was hauling the stalks we wanted to keep over to a pile. Nathan (2) was trying to find as many ways as possible to keep himself in trouble.

Julia comes walking back from the pile after her 30th trip or so, and announces "We are going to be on TV"

"Really?" Andee and I both asked.

"Yes, this is a very dirty job" she replied. "We should be on the Dirty Jobs show"

Posted by Josh Reighley at 12:30 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Today I was sitting on the couch minding my own business, and Julia, my 4 year old came up to me and said "Daddy, you are wearing a Teletubby shirt"

I am certain that I do not own a teletubby shirt, so I told her she was mistaking. The shirt I am wearing is a purple t-shirt that one of my former employers distributed at a trade show in 1996. It is kinda a funky shirt, but I only paid 3 bucks for it, and I have been wearing it occasionally for 8 years.

Much to my surprise, Julia then proved me wrong. I am indeed wearing a teletubby shirt.

My wife had a photo of me wearing this particular shirt sitting on her desk at Spokane County 911. One of her co-workers took the photo out of the frame, and installed a Tinky-Winky head over my face. Andee never bothered to fix the photo. Julia ran across the room, picked up the photo, and brought it to me. Indeed, Tinky winky wears this shirt.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 3:50 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I have been quiet lately, so I figured I should drop a line. The family has been pretty sick for the last week or two. We seem to keep passing the bug around. It seems like a lot of people are sick at work as well, although that doesn't affect me too much on the graveyard shift.

I have been enjoying the BSF study of Genesis this year. It is always challenging to keep up with the daily study. I often fall behind and have to play catch up at the end of the week. I am certain that this is an indicator that my priorities need some adjustment. Life is so much easier if you put God first. If you try to fit him in where you have space, pretty soon you are strugging through every life challenge all by yourself. After all that God has given us he deserves our best effort. Too often our gift to him the scraps of our life. I am working on being better about giving my best.

Andee is doing BSF this year, and the kids are going as well. It has been pretty neat to be able to talk about what we are learning, and all be able to immediately relate.

I think Liferoads is emerging from their transition in leadership with a renewed energy and passion. I see a lot of growth going on, and God is using a lot of people in new and exciting ways.

The Asterisk PBX system is finaly totally stable. it has been running for about a month without any trouble. I reboot it every 10 days or so just for good measure. Once I got the OEM X100P - FXO PCI Card from Digit Networks and tuned the Tx and Rx values, my Sipura 841 phones started behaving themselves.

Graveyard shift is not bad. Sometimes I get myself into trouble by staying up too late. Seems that if I don't go to bed by 10 AM or so, I have a lot of trouble going to bed at all. A couple of weeks ago, I went for an entire workweek with 8 or 10 hours of sleep total. I don't think I will let that happen again.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 12:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I plan to build an Asterisk box so that I can do fun projects like this:

THE TELECRAPPER 2000 TELEMARKETER INTERCEPTION SYSTEM

I just need a hard drive and the project is as good as done!

Posted by Josh Reighley at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My family went to Pizza Hut yesterday. My daughter said something that really explains why they are so successful.

"This cheese tastes buttery" -- Julia Reighley

Posted by at 5:46 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I just got back from a trip to Oregon. My itenerary included Canby, Bend, Prineville, Neskowin, Lincoln City, Newport, and Pacific City.

Stayed at a pretty cool vacation house in Neskowin. 1.5 blocks from the beach. The weather was quite nice, which is quite unusual for that area. Did some Geocaching on the coast. Logged over 1400 miles on my GPS over 7 days.

Missed out on the last couple of weeks at liferoads. Yesterday was the transition day. Brad Williams is leaving liferoads to plant a new church in New York city. His courage and obedience to his calling is quite admirable. If you know anyone in New York (Brooklyn Heights) who is looking for a good church, be sure to look Brad up. I am sorry that I missed his
Last sermon at Liferoads. I am excited to see the amazing things that God has in store for us.

Last week I attended New Life Foursquare in Canby. It is interesting to notice the subtle and not so subtle differences within churches that preach the same Gospel. Yesterday, I failed to attend Church at all. (Agast!)

Andee and the kids are staying in Oregon for a few more weeks. I get to adjust back to the graveyard shift. Perhaps I will write more soon.

Posted by at 5:31 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I think it should be obedience.

Today's culture doesn't like obedience as a character trait very much anymore, but I think it is invaluable.

I can't think of one problem in my life that is not somehow rooted in disobedience. We know what we are supposed to do, but we do something else.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 5:56 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

The Body for life plan really works. I have lost about 20 lbs so far. I think we started in May sometime. (I am not a records person) My weight loss has kind of hit a plateau, but inches started falling off.

I have not been as disciplined as I should, but I am still mostly behaving. I go to the Gym 5 or so times a week and do stair-steppers, ellipticals or treadmills. Also lift weights 3 times per week.

I don't eat any sugar based foods, and I try to eat protein and good carbohydrates with each meal. I have not been very good about portion sizes. Cutting out the 4 Dr. Peppers and the Mocha in the morning makes a ton of difference right out of the blocks.

People are starting to ask me if I lost weight. It must show.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:28 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I started my new shift today. 11:00PM-6:30AM Monday-Friday. Pretty wild.

My wife and kids are out of town for the week. That makes things kinda interesting at home. Not a lot going on. Went on a nasty hike Saturday. It was really cool, but very steep. Had a wonderful view of the Palouse when we got to the top. My legs where too tired to lift weights yesterday. Here is a page with some photos.

Been eating too much good food lately. I have been doing pretty good on the Body for Life program over the last 4 weeks or so. Now that Andee is gone, it is more difficult to resist the resturaunts. I have been pretty good about only eating quality foods though, and I have been getting plenty of excercize.

I would recommend the Body for Life program to anyone looking to lose weight. It is nice, because instead of focusing on not eating bad stuff, you instead focus on eating the right foods. I have lost about 15 pounds so far, and I have gained a lot of muscle. I am no longer afraid to engage in strenuous activities. I used to alway sit on the sidelines because I knew that I would be winded in 3 or 4 minutes if I played. Andee is losing even more weight than I am.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 1:36 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

One trip to the HMO for a 3 minute doctor visit and a referal: 25 dollars

A 2 hour wait in a 80 degree waiting room to visit a specialist: 50 bucks

Putting the blue bead that has been recovered from you son's nostril into the baby book: Priceless

Posted by at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Yesterday my wife asked me to hold my son down so that she could cut his fingernails. She said that she had cut the fingernails on his right hand earlier in the day, and after about 3 fingers he had had enough and started wrestling and fighting with her.

When Nathan (just turned 2) heard that she wanted to cut his nails, he climbed up on my lap and held his left hand out, and politely allowed Andee to cut all 5 nails. Then he gave her each of his feet and let her clip his nails.

Andee asked him why he was so naughty in the morning and why he is being so good now that Daddy is home.

He answered with a smile: "Turkey"

(When he is ornery his Grandma often tells him "Nathan, you are a Turkey")

Posted by at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Got up at 5:30 this moring and went to work at Bloomsday A bunch of folks from my church handed out water to the 50,000 runners. It was fun and wet. We had a church picnic this afternoon and an evening service. It was kinda cool to see how much the Church has grown. It has been quite a long time since we had a single service with everyone in the same place.

Tonight, I am working graveyard shift. It is pretty quiet, but I am sleepy. I will likely be doing the graveyard shift all week.

Posted by at 2:35 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Telegraph | News | Woman breastfeeds newborn tiger cubs

I once got in trouble for telling my wife that she was a great mammal...

The "Ads by Google" bar is pretty funny when I read this. Google is confused. Do I sell them Cats or nursing Bras????

Posted by at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

So we bought a new vehicle. Our old Saturn has been giving us quite a bit of trouble lately, and It has 160K or so on it, so it is difficult to justify investing too much into it. For the last month or so I have been trying to patch together the cooling system with Epoxy putty. That has not worked too well I suspect that what is happening is that when I patch it one place the presure is breaking out the next weakest point...

Finally after weeks of this silly chasing the leak, it began leaking coolant into the Serpentine belt. I am not sure where it is leaking from, but when I look I get sprayed with Coolant, so I give up...

Yesterday we visited the local cheap car lot and shelled out a couple thousand dollars on an 92 Chevy Astro van. It is a bit beat up in the front, but seems to run well, and is quite clean inside.

I was lobbing to name it "Big Ugly Truck" Or B.U.T. for short. But Andee said no. She said I could call it "Big Ugly Minivan". I guess we will be taking the kids camping in the B.U.M. this summer.

Posted by at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

CNN.com - Spouse as next of kin has deep roots - Mar 29, 2005

"It's odd that conservative Christians would be making this claim," said Christopher Schroeder, director of the public law program at Duke University. "You can find biblical passages that say once you have a union like this, the union's all that matters. The parents drop out of the picture."

This article echos what I was saying earlier about this case. I don't like Michael Schiavo's decision, and I question his motives. I do however believe that it is his job as a husband to make these kind of decisions for his family. I think the family institution will be damaged if the courts take the husband's responsibility away from him.

He has responsiblity over his wife's medical care. He will be judged based on the motives of his heart in eternity. There is no way that a court here on earth will be able to do that.

Posted by at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Many folks are desperatly wanting the Judiciary to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case. I think that the judges are doing the right thing, no matter how painful it is.

The fact of the matter is that the husband should have the final say in his wife's care. She has left her parents to cleave unto him, and for better or for worse, he has been given authority over his household.

I think it is a dangerous precedent for the judiciary to ignore that truth. He may do a terrible job of running his family, but it is still his family to run.

Many will argue that his adultourous relationship should absolve him of his responisiblity and authority. I think that this should be a matter for legislators to look at. Adultry should be wrong. Legally however it is not. Judges are forced to look at legalisms, not at moral judgements when making their decisions.

If judges used morality to make their descisions, when we choose to do irrational things like forgive our enemies, and trusting God, Judges would be able to overrule us.

Posted by at 6:58 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Maybe not, he is only 23. I knew a lot of guys just like him!

Yahoo! News - Man With 'TIPSY' Plate Faces DUI Charges

Posted by at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

I have been not blogging much lately. I have been busy doing varios things.

I am writing some software to help manage the check in of kids at Sunday School. This has been a fun project, and I am nearly done now.

I have been Geocaching lately. I am all of the way up to 2 finds now. Walked about 12 miles last week, but I am still fat. Geocaching is a nerd sport. I like it.

Nathan is talking now. He is using words all of the time. Sometimes even 3 at a time.

It is hard to find information about sensory deprivation tanks via Google. A search yeilds more sarcastic references that actual info. One of you Google PhD's who reads Fingertoe.com (I know your out there becuase you keep developing my ideas for me) needs to invent an "NOT SARCASM" boolean operator. Anyway, I had considered building a Float tank about 3 or 4 years ago, so if you searcjh for "Float tank Spokane", You will likely find me amidst the vast collection of Pretender episode reviews and "Unless you where in a Sensory Deprivation tank you know...." references. As a result I occasionally have people email me and ask if I know of any float tanks in the Spokane area. If you know of one, Please add a comment. I am sure that this post will show up soon on the search engines.

Started cleaning up my garden area. I have about 3 years worth of maple tree leaves composting back there. I am trying to consolidate these into the compost bins so that I can have some more soil to plant. It is pretty hard work!

I have to work this weekend. That is not fun.

At church we have been going through the Sermon on the Mount. At BSF we have been going through 1st and Second Corinthians. For several weeks in a row, the topics have complemented each other almost perfectly. For example Matthew 5:43-48 and 1 Corinthians 13 Or Matthew 6:1-4 and 2 Corinthians 8:1-13 I suspect this is an interesting coincidence, although I am sure that the sermon on the mount was a pretty big inspiration to all early Christians, Paul included.

Posted by at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

CNN.com - Man begs wife's forgiveness in $17,000 ad - Jan 26, 2005

It is nice to see that somebody still understands the value of marriage. So many people give up so easily these days. It is nice to see that somebody is willing to sacrifice to try to make it work.

Posted by at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Nathan, my 1 1/2 year old seems to have a prettty technical mind..

I wonder if it is normal that a kid learns the words "on" and "off" before "Yes" and "no"? I wonder if he is ready to learn to count in Binary?

Posted by at 7:59 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

I have been really sick all week. 102.3 degree tempurature whenever I don't take drugs....

Also have blistery things on the back of my throat, a nasty cough that makes it difficult to breathe sometimes... All and all it is pretty fun... Antibiodics don't seem to be doing much for it either...

Just thought i would share.. I am going nuts being in bed all week...

Posted by at 3:27 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

IIf my kids don't straighten up in the next 10 years or so.

Yahoo! News Search Results for Benjamin Barnard

Posted by at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

So, Now that the election is over I have been a bit slow to Blog.

I see Christians being painted with a pretty broad brush these days. The democrats and the media are trying to say that "Values voters" voted for Bush over the gay marriage issue. This may be partially true, but there where a lot more issues driving voters to the polls than just that one issue. Many values voters don't like the idea that it is legal to pull a baby partway out of it's mother and then grind it's brains out. Many don't believe that the government should establish Atheism as a national religion by abolishing any government reference to a creator.

All of these assaults are coming from one branch of the government: the judicial branch. Our government is a system of checks and balances. When one branch begins going against the will of the voters, the voters respond by making sure there is balance in the other branches. It appears to be working properly to me.

Posted by at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Idaho won by 13 points!

Yahoo! Sports - NCAA Football - Box Score

Posted by at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Yesterday I was taking my kids home from Church, and I decided to take the ccenic route as they both looked like they could use a little sleep. Nathan (1 1/2) fell asleep right away. Julia (3 1/2) was quite chatty.

When noon came along, a local Christain radio station was playing their "hymn hour". I explained to Julia that hymns are songs about God that have been sung in churches for a very long time. She listened intently for five or six minutes, then asked. "Daddy, are these songs all the same?"

(I told her no)

Posted by at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Well, I spent most of Labor day weekend pretending that I wasn't sick. Went to the doctor and got anti-biotics, but they don't seem to be helping. I wish I could find my webcam, I could post a picture of the white spots freckeling the back of my throat. I hear it is really cool looking..

Posted by at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

So, it is a new season. Lots of new activities starting up.

My BSF class starts next week. I am pretty excited about it. We are covering Acts of the Apostles this year. If you are looking for a good bible study, you should see if there is a Bible Study Fellowship class in your area. It is a pretty big commitment, but you learn a ton from going through the study.

My fantasy football league starts up about now too. I seem to be lacking the drive to devote ample time this year. I have been consistantly competitve over the last 4 years or so, and we play with the same group of college buddies every year. It is a great way to stay connected. We just play for bragging rights.

Speaking of college, According to my.yahoo.com, Idaho (My alma matter of the heart, not the alma matter on my diploma) apparently lost to a team without a name 65-7. They where kind enough not to put the words "Boise State" on my screen. I don't remember checking an option for censoring words in the my yahoo setup, but if there is an censor option, I am sure I would have checked it.

Posted by at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Spent the last week in Oregon. Sorry for the silence.

Forgot how to pump gas while I was there. In Oregon all of the Service stations are full service, and you are not allowed to pump your own gas.

Today I filled up my rental car here in Washinton, and as was driving home, I noticed that my gas cap was dangling by its plastic holder thingy and my was door was open.

This happens to be the 100 entry on fingertoe.com

Had an interesting and eventful vacation. Learned quite a bit. More on that later.

Posted by at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

From: 20 Questions to a Better Personality

Wackiness: 50/100 Rationality: 68/100 Constructiveness: 60/100 Leadership: 56/100

You are an SRCL--Sober Rational Constructive Leader. This makes you an Ayn Rand ideal. Taggart? Roark? Galt? You are all of these. You were born to lead. You may not be particularly exciting, but you have a strange charisma--born of intellect and personal drive--that people begin to notice when they have been around you a while. You don't like to compromise, but you recognize when you have to.

You care absolutely nothing what other people think, and this somehow attracts people to you. Treat them well, use them wisely, and ascend to your rightful rank.

I am not sure that I am born to lead. Time will tell I would suppose. I am boring, but quirky. It takes a while before people start to recognize my ideas as being at all inspired. I believe in right and wrong, and I don't tend to bend too much on issues of right and wrong. I call it as I see it, but I am fairly kind to people even if they are wrong.

Personal drive has been lacking lately. There are times when my drive is very strong and I get a massive amount of stuff done, but often I coast on my talents.

(Yes, I am copying Consistently Chili again.)

Posted by at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I went down to Hillsboro Oregon for a few days on business.. I am back now. Got to see my freinds and Sisters who live in the Portland area. My sisters are still Kerry supporters, but at least they don't run IE anymore. ;-) They where pretty impressed when I installed Firefox with gestures on their system. I wandered all over the western suburbs of Portalnd, and only got lost 2 times in 3 days. Not bad for a guy who refuses to read directions. (I learn better when I figure it out on my own)

We are expecting quite a hectic week. Andee is having surgery on Wednesday. She will probably not be in baby chasing mode for several weeks. Andee's Mom, Sister and Neice are coming down next week to help out. Then it sounds like a lot of our friends from Liferoads have offered to help out in the weeks afterwords if needed.

Posted by at 8:11 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Laziness and innovation run in my family... I think it is genetic.

Look at my son's first inventions (1 meg Windows media file)

Posted by at 7:03 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

I have not tested out the file upload on this website yet. Figured since I have a new photo of Julia and Nathan, I should give it a try!

Posted by at 8:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Saturday, I went down to Pullman to visit the new TKE colony that is starting up there. They seem like a good group of young men. Rebuilding a fraternity is very hard work, but the impact that their work will have on young men for generations to come are pretty profound.

I find it quite interesting to work with college communities. The college world ends after 4-9 years. Each student has the opportunity to leave a legacy within that short window of time, much as we all have the opportune to leave a legacy over the course of our life here in the 'real' world. It seems that the accelerated timeline makes the consequences of our decisions more profound. The consequences of or decisions in college seem to play out in an accelerated fashion compared to the rest of or our life decisions. We are exposed to every temptation in college, and either resist or we don't. Reputations are established quickly, We learn to swim or we sink. Our successes and failures in the college world shape the way that we make decisions for the rest of our life.

Anyway, It is interesting too look back at my college days, think about who influenced me back then, and what impact they had on the rest of my life. It is also interesting to wonder what impact I had on other classmate's lives over the course of time that I spent in college. We are so impressionable that at that point of our life that even when we disagree with somebody, our disagreement can form part of our identity for the rest of our lives. Weird.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

We got to go to the hospital today! Julia got shoved off of the slide at Riverfront park and bonked her face on the slide rail. Then fell off of the slide and hit the ground. Andee thought she was okay, but then she got the dazed and confused look that Wiley Cayote always had on the Roadrunner show.

Of course by the time she got checked into the ER, she was all healed up. The nice thing is that we have spent so much time at the hospital with our kids that it doesn't seem too foreign to us. My parking spot always seems to be open in the parking garage.

Set a record at work last month. Took 756 calls (That is a lot).

I am cutting down on my sugar intake. I was drinking 3-4 12 oz cans of Dr. Pepper along with a 32-44 oz pop with my lunch. I figure that is most of the reason I am fat. Now I am limiting myself to 24 oz per day . Perhaps someday I will ween myself completely.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments ()