Breaking your lease...

This is a 'memoir' I wrote last year to remind me of a mistake I needed to remember to learn from! It's all about legal mumbo-jumbo and never never never take someones word when it comes to contracts. Sign on the dotted line, and write everything down!!!

_______________________________

I've been renting since I was 18 years old, and have never come across a problem such as this. Now at age 33, you'd think I'd have this figured out by now.

SIMPLY PUT
Whenever you are in any sort of business transaction, make sure any verbal agreements are written down and signed.

Here's my story. If they keep this post on here, I'll update it as time goes on so hopefully others can learn from my mistake.

My wife and I were married over 2 years ago. Both of us have rented apartments and houses our whole life. When we first decided it was time to get engaged, we did like all couples do and discuss our future in buying a house someday. At the time, she lived in an apartment complex in Overland Park and I was renting a house in the Kansas City area. We planned that it would be best that once we were married, I would move in with her in Overland Park since her place was bigger and would hold both of us, my children as well as her children comfortably. (Yes, we are a family of six.) We both agreed that we would do this temporarily and move within the next few years to a house of our own.

We were married in June of 2005 and have been loving it ever since.

When it came time for me to move in with my wife, we visited the management of her apartment complex to sign my name to the lease. It's a yearly lease with no provisions of early cancellation unless you are relocating with your job. Being that it made no mention of early cancellation due to a house purchase, we asked the manager of the complex if they made any provisions for cancellation of a lease if we were to buy a house. We explained that we were newly married, and that we would want to stay here with the option of breaking our lease if we found a home to purchase. The manager of the complex explained that it would only require us to perform the simple task of giving two months written notice and that it wouldn't be any problem whatsoever.

My wife's original lease expired in April of 2006. Ten months went by, and we were still not ready to buy a house, but we were feeling that our current apartment was a bit tighter than we had though it would be with us and our children. We asked the manager if they had a town-home available that would fit us better. It just so happened that a larger town-home came available around the same time so we signed another yearly lease with the same provisions as the last. Up to this point, we were still discussing and fixing our financial situation to prepare our selves for a home purchase.

Mounting problems with security and localized crime in our specific area had persuaded the both of us we should move soon. But another year had come and gone, and we still weren't quite ready to purchase a house, but we knew we were close. We received notice early February of 2007 that our rent would be increasing for 2007 if we were to choose to stay. This notice included a new lease for us to sign. My wife and I both read through the short 2 and a half page lease agreement, and noticed that it still had the same provisions as all the earlier leases we signed. I felt that since we were close, but not quite close enough to get a house by April of that year, that I would discuss with the management once more about us moving and breaking the lease if we were to purchase a home. I walked in the management office with signed lease in hand, and had the same conversation with the Apartment manager as before. She explained with a "nice big smile" that we wouldn't have any problem breaking the lease so long as we gave two months notice and cleaned the property appropriately before moving. I thanked her for her time and handed over the new yearly lease for 2007.

Now that I am where I am now, I wish I had written that verbal agreement down, or had a tape recording of our conversation. That is the exact point my problem spawned and here is where it gets interesting.

As I mentioned earlier about our growing concerns for our safety, and most of all our children's safety, and being that we finally had our financial concerns under control, we both started house hunting like crazy. It was exciting to think that someday soon, one of these houses would be our own. It was a breath of fresh air to know that we would be away from the growing crime that our little area has been seeing lately. I understand that rental complexes have their fair share of "over the norm crime", but it had come awfully close to "home" lately. I can't say that I ever felt that we were in immediate danger otherwise I wouldn't have thought twice about moving immediately. But I must say our complex has had it's fair share of news coverage lately and with a recent personal experience here, we were ready to take the plunge!

With our understanding of what the apartment manager had previously told us several times before regarding a house purchase and early termination of the lease, we put an offer on the house of our dreams. There is so much to do, and so little I understood of the house buying process. My mortgage lender explained that they would need to contact our current apartment manager to get a rental payment history. They said I should contact the manager before they do to let them know we are moving. That way it wouldn't be that big of a surprise to the manager. I happily obliged and proceeded to call the manager immediately after. Here is the exact transcript of our conversation. I remember it like it was yesterday, and I will probably never forget it. (Ive replaced the managers name with "Dorthy", and my name as "Fred" to keep this anonymous)

ring... ring... ring...

Manager: "Hello, [name of complex apartments] can I help you?"

Me: "Yes, Dorthy, this is Fred from [address of our town-home]."

Manager: " Yes, Fred, how are you doing?"

Me: "Fine, thanks. I was just giving you a heads up that I believe we found a place to purchase, and the lender wanted to contact you for our rental history."

Manager: "OH, well you... pause I hear her typing on the computer ... your lease isn't up until April of 2008! You can't do that or you will be breaking your lease."

Me: "Well I'm still going to give you our two months notice as we discussed."

Manager: "I remember that, but I also told you that you would need to sign an addendum in order to do that."

Me: "I don't remember that, but can I come over and sign that now?"

Manager: "No, I told you that you would need to sign it when you renewed your lease, and you must have forgot because I don't have an addendum from you."

Me: "Dorthy, that's a big fat lie! You never told me..."

Manager: ...she interrupted me... "Now wait a minute, I've been doing this for 22 years and know how to do my job! And I know I didn't forget to tell you that! If you break your lease early, you will be responsible up until April of 2008 for rental payments."

Me: "I know that's not true. Will you still discuss my rental history with the lender?"

Manager: "OH why of course. I always do that for people. I don't have a problem doing that."

Me: Click


The first thing I was thinking about when I hung up the phone was that Dorthy had 22 years of deceptive practices behind her. She's a pro, and she is going to be trouble!

She must have been honest with my lender, because they came back saying everything looked squeaky clean. That much I'm thankful for.

So my wife and I are in a nervous twit now. We thought long and hard, and after the bomb Dorthy laid down, we decided we would take our chances and follow through with the home purchase. This gave us even more reason to leave and not help support a company that uses deceptive lying practices to keep tenants in place.

Once the seller of our house accepted our offer, my wife and I were both excited and scared. Now we had to follow through and send our apartment manger our notice. We sent the notice three days ago (August 21st.) certified mail, and guess what showed up in our mailbox today? A letter from a Law-Firm in Lenexa Kansas. They are representing the Apartment Complex because they were made aware of our intent to break the lease. I will be honest. I cited safety as the reason for us breaking our lease. It was the honest truth. Three weeks ago, I filed a police report as we had a case of destruction of property and arson on the property of the complex. Although the attorney stated that the management of the complex keeps close ties with local law-enforcement and that they haven't been made aware of any report filed by me. They explained I should contact the apartment management immediately with a case/report number of the incident.

Well they must not keep that close of contact because it's out there, and the detective contacted me earlier this week to let me know it's going to court.

The attorney was long and drawn out explaining that the manager knew we were moving, and that we were made aware of an addendum that we were supposed to sign at the beginning of our lease. But we choose not to sign it, so therefore we are liable for the apartment until April of 2008. The attorney also went on to explain all the charges we are liable for, and that they really hope we think twice about breaking the lease.

Side note: Why must you sign the addendum at the time of lease signing? If you don't know when you are going to purchase a house in the first place, I don't see why you must sign it at lease signing time. They should make that addendum part of the lease in that case. Hmmmmm....

I know this is "mostly" a scare tactic, as the Kansas Tenant laws explains that as soon as the rental manager is made aware of our intent to vacate, they must use every reasonable effort to bring the property up to par to sell to another tenant in the most timely manner allowed.

I'll admit. The scare tactic worked. I called around to several different local Tenant Law attorneys in the area, and they said they couldn't help me because they have represented this complex in the past. Luckily, my Dad has a attorney friend that he asked me to call. I contacted him and explained the situation. He said he would take a look at the lease, letter as well as my statement and tell me what my options are. His first impression is that she doesn't have a leg to stand on. But I'm a pessimist. It's my word against hers. I hope he has something to come back with, even if it's to get her for lying.

Well. So here I am. I have a house under contract, and a lease that I can't break. Quite the pickle I got myself into this time.

I'm not certain why people act the way they do, and feel that they must lie in order to make a business work. I was very frustrated. Almost to the point of calling the house off. But after a lot of praying, my wife and I have decided to see this on through. We are going to keep the contact on the house, and only hope that it closes successfully towards the end of September.

I'll keep this post updated as my situation progresses (or regresses) as the case may be. My only hope of writing this long draw-out experience is that maybe someone else may be thinking of cutting the lease short in order to buy a house, relocate a job, or something similar, that they will make certain they are agreeable with what the lease states, and anything verbal you agree on with the landlord is written down and signed.

Wish me luck! Oh, and yeah... if anyone has any advice they want to give this sucker, I'm open to suggestions!


_______________________________
Well... since then the attorney was able to bail us out. It cost us $400 and a bunch of pain and aggravation. I was really surprised to see that our ex landlord even returned our security deposit a few months later. Hopefully someone will learn from my mistake.

My Great Mentor...

Everyone has that someone special that they look up-to in life. Someone that gives them that extra energy in life to make even the most miserable situations seem petty. If you haven't had that person in your life, then I can't even begin to describe what joy you are missing. I must say that my parents are obviously the ones that raised and reared me, and made me whom I am. I can't say enough good things about all the advise and love they have shown me throughout my years. But outside of my immediate family I choose my Grandfather Robert as my biggest mentor.

At 80 years young, he has more sincerity and blessings to share than anyone I know of. As far back as I can remember the act he has played as a role model is more than I can explain. He was born at the onset of the great depression and the strife his family must have experienced can only be unimaginable. He did his time serving his country, and continued his time as being the 15th hired employee of the then, Bendix Corporation located in Kansas City, Missouri.

Throughout all his years, and to this day, he keeps a strong bond with the Lord. He attempts to walk daily to keep his strength, and I believe that every day he is able to do his walk, he is truly walking right beside the Lord, talking with Him as if he is his Lord's best friend; sharing the things that make him happy, as well as the troubles he knows his friends and family are experiencing. His blessings are evident in all that he does, and there's not a day that goes by where he isn't thankful it's not his last. This is a wonderful thing, as he uses his strength and knowledge of all the wonderful things the Lord is capable of in his every day witnessing.

Grandpa isn't the type of individual that keeps quiet when things aren't what they ought to be. He can somehow treat every situation that comes his way as an opportunity to witness; somehow, in someway, to someone. I can't even begin to imagine how many lives my grandfather has touched in a positive way of some sort. So this is in honor of my Grandfather. The Lord has truly blessed you and it's evident in all you do!

Lake Annette To Charge Road Toll!!! (UPDATED)

Now I've heard it all! Lake Annette is a small town South of Kansas City about 30 miles. I grew up around the area and it's always been known to have "real curb appeal". Before I get tons of nasty e-mails from the residents of said town, I'd like to say my peace. I have nothing against the Lake Annette residents who live there. Although I do question many of the peoples motives for living in an area that is known to be in an active flood plain. The last major flood happened in May of 2004. It ruined several houses and left several families and individuals homeless.

The topic of this story revolves around the recent news story where Lake Annette will be charging a toll for those individuals that use the road as a short cut between C and 2 Hwy.

My real beef is with the city government of Lake Annette. I'm not certain how they can enforce a toll. The operating and start up costs are sure to far exceed the revenue generated. And with that being said, those individuals that use Lake Annette road as a short-cut (as do I all the time) won't find it that much of an inconvenience to take C on through to 2 Hwy. Honestly taking the Lake Annette shortcut isn't that big of a time saver. I use that route more for a scenery intake. It is a nice little windy road that dips and curves throughout the route. It's very peaceful and serene.

I'm curios how much traffic really does merely run through. I've never seen a vehicle counter in the road, and I most recently went that route just a couple weeks ago. I also prefer this route, as generally it's a road less traveled.

I suppose all-in-all, if the money generated really can help the town fix the pot-hole stricken road, then I'm all for it. But in just the 5 minutes of thought I put into the idea, I felt that there has to be more to the story than what meets the eye. For some reason I feel the idea is ludicrous and it's merely an attempt for a small town politician to generate some unmanaged revenue.

Here is the news story...

<UPDATED> But wait... there's more. This isn't the first time Lake Annette made the news. Back in 2003, the New York Times ran a pretty good story on the old town. Seems very fitting. It's been a while, but I doubt things have changed that much.

Read the wonderful review from the New York Times here.

<UPDATED> But wait... I just received my first e-mail from a Lake Annette resident. They asked that they remain anonymous and that I not post their e-mail. The gist of the e-mail stated I was (and I quote), "crass, ignerant, and self rigteous idot with nothing better to do than to put yourself on a pedistel and take craks at those less of than you. remove your letter from your site immediately as you are joking the residents of this town. if you dont we will seek legal action..."

I actually received this e-mail while updating the post to be more fluid and give people a better understanding of my opinion. I apologize for any misunderstanding.

International Space Station Clogged Toilet...

And who would have thought NASA would have to deal with toilet problems aboard a high-tech space station? Maybe I'm the only one that sees the irony in this; although I'm not surprised. I'm certain that the operator instructions for the ISS Toilet could fill the volume of one encyclopedia book. You're not talking just simple plumbing anymore. These types of toilets rely on vacuum equipment, air flow, and air/water separators in order to properly dispose of waste.

Until fixed, the current supply of Apollo bags for fecal collection may have to suffice! If you have some extra time, and this interests you, than you are in luck... You can read all about it here!*Images courtesy of NASA.

I'm on Mars...

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars this past Sunday. I was channel surfing at the time, and just by happenstance tuned into the Sci-Fi channel and saw it live from the mission control. This stuff interests me tremendously. We have so much we can learn from our Solar System. Learning is a big part of our human race.

My name — along with a quarter million others from around the world — is now on the surface of Mars. Also on the disk is Visions of Mars, a treasure trove of literature and art — from classic works by Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury to Orson Welles' radio retelling of "The War of the Worlds" to a special audio recording of Carl Sagan delivering a message to the future.

The Phoenix Mars Lander will investigate a site in the far north of Mars. The mission will seek to answer questions about that part of Mars and help resolve broader questions about the planet. The key questions Phoenix will address concern water and conditions that could support life.

The Phoenix landing region has water ice in soil close to the surface, which NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter discovered for much of the high-latitude terrain in both the north and south hemispheres of Mars.

Phoenix will dig down to the icy layer. It will examine soil in place at the surface, at the icy layer and in between. It will scoop up samples for analysis by its onboard instruments. One key instrument will check for water and carbon-containing compounds by heating soil samples in tiny ovens and examining the vapors that are given off. Another will test soil samples by adding water and analyzing the dissolution products. Cameras and microscopes will provide information on scales spanning eight powers of 10, from features that could fit by the hundreds into the period at the end of this sentence to a survey of the landscape by a mast-mounted camera. A weather station will provide information about atmospheric processes in an arctic region where a coating of carbon-dioxide ice comes and goes with the seasons.

*Image and portions reproduced by Permission following NASA copyright guidelines.

All things good must come to an end.... again!

Memorial Day has come and gone... snif-snif. A great beautiful weekend! Yeah, it may have rained every day, but that didn't stop the Fox family from having fun and enjoying all that God has to give.

We had a late celebration for D's 14th birthday. We partied-hardy at the home. Grams, Gramps, Mom & Dad attended, and Chris and Randy made an appearance as well. Our Saturday evening was spent eating some BBQ'd hamburgers and hot dogs. What better way to spend a memorial day weekend! Everyone left stuffed as usual and I had my normal "bload-and-almost-get-sick-becuase-I'm-so-stuffed" party afterwards.

Sunday my outdoor thermometer read 96 degrees! So we decided to go fishing and get sunburned too! It was a lot of fun. Evan had the catch-of-the-day landing a nice size cat. It put up a little 'fight' for him too!

Monday I tried out the Jalapeño recipe that I posted earlier this month. Here are some pictures (as promised) with a condensed recipe.


Get a Jalapeño Corer. (You can find this at Cabellas or on-line)












Stuff some creme cheese into a cake decorator bag. One bar of creme cheese will fill about 12 med to large size Jalapeños.











Cut them tops off.













Fill'er up!














Wrap'em with bacon, stick'em with toothpicks, and lay on a foil sheet.













Grill'em for 30 minutes over indirect heat. Bacon should be crispy. Enjoy.

For the Love of Space...

Image Courtesy of NASA

Do you enjoy watching the night sky? Have you ever been known to gander towards the heavens, watching the stars slowly pass above you? Do you occasionally study the moon, it's phases, and where it is in the sky? Do you occasionally set aside some time to and plan ahead for meeting up with friends to watch the next major meteor shower? And have you ever set your eyes in one part of the sky, just to see if one of the 'stars' is quickly moving directly overhead? If you have said "Yes!", to any of those questions, then I would like to say hello to you, as an astronomer friend. I have always had an obsession with the night sky.

My Dad first explained to me when I was 8 years old, that the star I was seeing moving quickly overhead, wasn't really a star at all; but a man made satellite! "Wow!", I remember saying to myself. It just wasn't comprehendable to me. I relate my feelings then as to what my Grandfathers Mom must have thought many years back. My Grandfather Robert told me that when he was just a kid, he was outside the back porch one summer night watching the stars. His mom was inside doing the dinner dishes, when Robert started yelling excitedly for his mom to come outside. In a panic, she raced out the back porch and asked Robert what all the commotion was about? "Mom, look there...", he yelled pointing in the direction of a moving star. "That's a satellite! We put that into space, and it's over 200 miles above us, moving at over 15,000 miles per hour!!! We can see it because the satellite is reflecting the sun's rays!" His mom studied the moving star for a moment, and then looked at Robert, paused, and then took the dish rag and hit it over his head exclaiming, "Robert... you need to quit dreaming up these wild things, get back inside and do your homework!". Little did my Grandfather's mom know, but he had just studied about satellites in school a few weeks before!

Just as the our Ocean has so much left unknown, so does our outer space; if not more! When viewing pictures that the Hubble has recently taken, I forget that just a square centimeter of that picture of a Magellanic Cloud is really light years across! I forget that when I'm looking up at the stars at night, that I'm really seeing the stars as they were hundreds and thousands if not millions of years ago! Our view of the night sky is truly the only time-machine that we have here on earth! There is so much out there that we can't and don't know. It's an awesome balance of nature and our planet Earth is only a minuscule spec of space dust caught up in the balance of the gargantuan heavenly orbit.

For those that have even the slightest interest in Space and all that it has to offer, I suggest visiting Spaceweather.com. Dr. Tony Phillips pins the site daily, and always has something new and interesting to share.

Those were the days...

I remember the days when I could fill up the ol' Ford 150 and never feel like I was getting ripped off. That's when I was making just a bit over minimum wage. That's right! I never thought twice about the emissions I was outputting as well.

What happened to cause such a spike over the last year? Yowzer!!! The price increase in gas has definitely had an impact on my family. We watch what vehicle we take when and for what reasons. We have a Ford Fusion that Dana and I car pool in to work (we both work at the same job), and the Durango is used when we have all the kids together. I now think twice when the day comes that Alex wants to start driving. If I can't afford gas for myself, how can Alex who doesn't even have a job afford gas for a vehicle???

It all for the best though. Who needs to drive aimlessly around town when you don't have anything better to do? I remember I used to do that all the time. Now I just go for a walk. Much better I suppose!

Stuffed Jalapeño Madness

This recipe comes from my good friend Dugan. I haven't had a chance to try these yet, but I'm gonna give it a shot next weekend when I grill out for D's birthday! Although Jalapeño peppers are known to have a kick, coring the inside out will dampen the kick and these should be pretty mild. Also, for the low-carb conscious fellows, this treat is the bomb!

You will need:

Ingredients:
12 Jalapeños
12 Slices of Bacon
Cream Cheese (your choice of flavor)

Utensils:
This tasty snack is best made with the tools of the trade, although if you want to rough it, you can probably just use a small sharp knife and stuff the peppers the old fashioned way with a butter knife. They make Jalapeño corer's and pepper stuffers as shown up above in the picture.

Directions:
Core the Jalapeños and then stuff with cream cheese (we recommend garlic flavored, but experimenting is allowed). Use a pepper stuffer for ease. It's important that you fill the entire pepper with the creme cheese. If not, you can ruin your pepper when it cooks.

Now here comes the most important part of this procedure (I'll try to post some follow up pictures as a picture is worth a thousand words, and it's hard to explain, but very easy to do once you know how). Cover the hole of the pepper with bacon (smoked bacon or apple bacon is very tasty), overlapping 2 or 3 inches on one side, and the rest on the other. Take the longer side of bacon, and wrap it down and around the 2 -3 inch overlap on the other side. Then take two toothpicks, and insert them in a 'V' fashion so that when you lay them on the grill, the top part of the pepper with the hole is supported off the grill, in an angled fashion.

Place over indirect heat on the grill for 30 minutes.

Enjoy. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it out this coming memorial day weekend. I'll be sure to follow up!!!

phox quote of the day...

~ ‘I don’t really quite understand. Sometimes I don’t even pretend to. I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am. I am affected by what I let my mind dwell on.’ ~

Guilty by Reason of Association

Every once in a while I come up with Bible lessons for the kids. They seem to like it and I wrap a story up about them within it. Usually the story is just to make a point, and doesn't infer or mean that my children really did that. It's a colorful illustrative illusion to 'get' them in the moment! Here was my last story, and they all seemed to really like it!:

What we do, what we say, and how we act all affect our relationship with God. You can fool others, and you can fool yourself, but WE CAN'T FOOL GOD! Here's why.

What does the phrase, "Guilty by Reason of Association", mean?

Leviticus 5:1 - "If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen or learned about, he will be held responsible."


Take for example: Let's say that Dylan snook out of the house late one night, and decided to meet up with some friends. They were walking along the street with nothing better to do. Then one of Dylan's friends said, "My cousin and his parents are away for the Christmas holiday in Texas, at his Grandparents house. I know where his dad keeps a lot of money. Let's go break in the house, take the money, and then buy a XBOX 360 and some video games!" All of Dylan's friends were psyched-up with the idea and couldn't wait to get the XBOX 360. But Dylan didn't think in his mind that this was the best idea. He knew that it was illegal to break into a house, illegal to steal, and most of all, knew that this wasn't something that would be pleasing to his parents. But Dylan figured that as long as he doesn't break into the house or steal the money,... that if he just waited outside while his friends went into the house, that he wouldn't get in-trouble.

Well, Dylan did just that. While breaking into the house, Dylan waited outside in the cold, nervously and he even started sweating because he was getting scared. And then out of no-where, police were surrounding the house and had Dylan lie on the ground with his hands behind his back. All of his friends were arrested, and so was Dylan.

Why do you think Dylan was arrested? He didn't do anything, did he?

Just because you may have not done anything wrong, doesn't mean that you are necessarily innocent. Because Dylan knew what his friends were doing wrong, he was obligated to tell someone what they were doing. Hiding the truth, or not participating in the crime didn't make Dylan innocent. He was guilty, because he stayed with his friends while they committed the crime, and he didn't go tell someone that they were about to rob a house. Of course this is just a story, and Dylan would never do anything like this,... but if he had, he would have been arrested and charged with an accessory to a crime.

This is why as Christians, it's important for us to choose our friends, and actions closely. Hanging around with the wrong crowd, makes us just as guilty as them; even if we don't do anything wrong. And perception on other peoples part puts you in a different class of person than what you may really want to be associated with.

What most memorable part in the Bible identifies why we are guilty by reason of association, and what are we guilty of?

Genesis 3:6-13

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

Why is it important that we know God is Omnipresent?

Even if we might have done something wrong, and our parents don't know about it; that doesn't mean that we still haven't done something wrong. God is everywhere, and he sees everything. Omnipresent doesn't just mean that God can 'see' everything we do. He knows what we are thinking as well. God lives within our souls. He knows what we feel, how we feel, what we are thinking, and knows what we are going to do.

Because God is omnipresent, and He lives within our Soul, we must constantly be evaluating our actions and thoughts.

Would you say a cuss word in front of your mom or dad? Would you say a cuss word in front of God? Every-time you say something bad, think something bad, you are doing it in front of God.

What can I do to help me remember to do what's right? That's awful hard!

Yes! It's extremely hard, and as sinners, we will never be perfect and never do everything exactly the way God wants it done. But here are a few ideas that will help you be a good Christian and help us to lead a Christian Life!

PRAY PRAY PRAY! Ask for forgiveness for those that have sinned against you, and the sins you have done against others. Wear a WWJD bracelet? Every-time you feel uncomfortable about a decision you have to make that might be wrong, think about what Jesus would do? Would Jesus talk back to his parents? Would Jesus write this letter that might have cuss words in it to their friend? Would Jesus steal a persons quarter they found on the counter? Would Jesus not do his chores his parents told him to do? Would Jesus make excuses if he forgot to vacuum the floor when he got home from Church? Of course he wouldn't do any of these things. Wear the bracelet as a reminder to always think, Would Jesus do this? If not, then decide to make the right decision. Even if it's hard, you must make the right decision.

As we learned, being a Christian is much more than going to church and doing good things. It also requires us to control our thoughts and actions and do what is Godly. God promises us Eternal Salvation, and this should be something all Christians should strive for. Striving for this includes us doing what is right, every day, every hour, every minute, and every second of the day! God is watching us. He is in your heart. We are all guilty by reason of association; from the day of Adam and Eve. Keep your thought on Jesus, and always remember... WWJD?

Your Conscience As a Guide...

Have you ever wanted to tell someone something, but haven’t? All the opportunities are there for you, but your conscience keeps you quiet? I don’t know, maybe it’s not your conscience as that can tend to infer a moral dilemma. And I suppose that dilemma isn’t the right word either, as that infers a heart felt problem.

What is our conscience? Is it, as Freud would have it, the superego (or, more literally, the "above-I"), one of the multitude of impulses composing the psyche? Is it, as the Gnostic's would have it, the pneuma, the divine spark within us that predates this creation and seeks return to the true God? Or is it, as it is most commonly understood, our better self, some combination of the two others that is informed by superior moral authority? Whatever your answer, it becomes clear that our conscience should be heeded only insofar as it derives moral authority from beyond ourselves.

I believe that, somewhat, evil is its own punishment. To commit evil is to choose to be apart from God, and so it is apart from God that the evil remain. I can imagine no torment that would be more horrible. Nothing that Dante describes in his Inferno sounds more awful than Limbo, the first and outermost circle of Hell, where virtuous pagans and un-baptized infants suffer an eternity of "desire without hope." Seen this way, our conscience is fulfilling its role only to the extent that it leads us toward God, making it indistinguishable from faith. So those who would follow their conscience without the benefit of faith are deluded. They're deluded not because they lack faith, but because they follow a course that lacks meaning in the absence of faith. Those with faith need only be concerned about whether the voice they're heeding is their legitimate conscience or one of the psyche's many other internal actors. After all, neither faith nor conscience allows us to transcend our humanity.

Is it dangerous to let only your conscience guide your actions? I would say it is very dangerous - since your "conscience" is, I believe, the results of your early 'enculturation' about what is right and wrong - often becoming ingrained well before you have any real ability to rationally critique the messages you are given.

Therefore, if your parents believe that treating members of ethnic groups different from your own as fellow humans is wrong, if you trust your conscience, you may never critically examine the messages you were given - although, if other messages you are given conflict with this, you may.

If I let my 'conscience be my guide' in certain situations, I would be in trouble! Many of my decisions are based on the golden rule 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. Some people, like career criminals, don't seem to have a conscience or they simply don't care about the consequences of their actions; for various reasons.

I don't feel like I have a strong conscience. Left to my own devices, I would do just about anything short of murder. Okay …. Sorry, I'm stretching the truth a bit, but it makes my point. I live my life on the straight and narrow simply because I don't want to hurt others, don't want to do things that are illegal...break the law and go to jail and because of religious teachings I've been subjected to since childhood.

So how did I get from asking a common question to rambling about our conscience? Is this ever going to start making sense? Good question! Bear with me. ..

Happy Tornado, errr... Mothers Day...

It's been a weird start of 2008 as far as the weather is concerned. Missouri only has 50 tornadoes per year on average, and as of today Missouri has seen a total of 108 tornadoes this year! Yikes.

My week was pretty serene. I went to Dallas Wednesday (which took forever due to the airplane dodging all the thunderstorms that were lined up from Texas to Missouri. They even had DFW shut down, so there towards the end, we had to dodge some other airplanes that were circling while we tried to make it into love field.

By the way- the picture to the left is real. This picture was caught in June of 2004 somewhere in Kansas. You can read about it on APOD's web site here.

But today was Mothers day, and that's the important thing here! I'm glad I can look beyond the beatings of the wooden spoon and being grounded for taking that extra soda pop! Life was good growing up, and it's in large part to mom. I still remember like it was yesterday those days mom picking me up from pre-school. We usually would walk, and I can remember the thrill of seeing mom's head come up from around the hill on the side of the street. I remember all the times she would show up to my school functions (and usually bring Grandma with her)! She kept us busy in the summer and always had something fun to do for us. I know I taxed her big time through life though, but it wasn't anything a wooden spoon couldn't take care of! To this day, my bro and I still can't count how many wooden spoons that were (rightfully) broken over our b-hinds!

We did a lot of mothers day stuff today. We started out by celebrating Dana's motherly being, and then followed up by seeing Dana's mom. We then went over to moms for a bit and also gave mom and dad their anniversary card. It will be their 35th this coming Tuesday! We even made it back out to see them this evening and shared a few laughs with them. Grandma and Grandpa were there as well! It was a swell day!

31,806,720 inches to Dallas

I'm glad it's not that far to Dallas. Flight time wise, I'll only be in the air for about 4,500 seconds. I have some training that I have to do for Thursday in the Dallas area, and I'll end up leaving tomorrow afternoon so I can be there first thing Thursday morning! If all goes well, when training is over, I'll have a little less than an hour to catch my flight back home Thursday evening.

It's been a pretty decent start of the week. I'm looking forward to the weekend though. I'll have the kiddos again, and I'm getting anxious to go to E's next hockey game. I hope the weather cooperates, as I think right now those weather men are forecasting some storms.

Ohh yeah ... don't forget that mothers day is fast approaching!

Delmar's going to the moon...

You never know what Delmar's going to do next. He's a crafty little fellow and if I told you his latest trick, you wouldn't believe me anyway.

So I'll go ahead and tell you... Delmar signed up to have his name flown to the moon. He's always searching on the internet for weird and interesting things and I feel he hit this one right on!

You can visit NASA's Web Site and sign up to have your name flown to the moon aboard the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) spacecraft.

The deadline is June 27th, 2008. LRO is scheduled to launch in late 2008.

Don't tell Delmar, but he thinks he is going for real! I don't feel like breaking his little pug heart just quite yet.

10 years...

Wow. I've never done anything for 10 years straight before, other than eat, pee, and sleep. This is quite the achievement for me. I just received recognition for 10 years at JWS. April 27th to be exact. I was just a wee 23 years old when I started JWS. I had to pay the rental car companies an extra 25 to 50 dollars insurance for being 'under age'. When I started I also received the title of being the youngest employee. Not true anymore.

It's been fun working at JWS, as well as a sigh of relief. It's exactly what i was always looking for, and they have treated me well. I hope to be here another 20 years!!! I thank God for my good fortune.