Happy Nappy Time

I had yesterday off from work after 9 days straight without a day off. All was well until I managed to yank a kink into my back early in the morning after taking my daily shower. That was too much fun. Pain, the final frontier, going where I certainly did not want to go. However, that did not stop me from taking my friend Chuck to Cracker Barrell and stuffing my face with Grandpa's Country Fried Steak Breakfast. Gosh, I am getting hungry just typing it. How scary is that?

The pain in my back was making it difficult to breath but not too difficult to swallow so I endured the car ride there and back. I spent most of my day running errands and then picked up my Gizmo from Sangaree Middle School and took her to McDonalds for lunch. Once that was done we went back to the new school and Katy escorted me back to her classroom where I met her assistant who is ALSO named James. What an interesting coincidence that is.... As you can already tell I snapped some digital images as well as some 35 mm shots. You see the digital pics now on the blog and if I find some on the 35mm cd when I get them devoloped you will see those at a later date. Gosh, I just love being a shutter bug.

Happy Nappy Time happened between 3:30 pm and 5 pm when I laid down to try and shake the pain which had begun to subside in my back. I woke up around 5pm , had coffee and an oreo cookie or two or three or four..... I then took Kristina over to the pastors house where the youth were meeting to head to a Summerville COGOP church for a back to school rally of some sort. Justin and I headed over to Royal Z bowling alley where we bowled a practice game before the league games last night. Our team, M&M BB's (who came up with that team name anyway??) was securely in 5th place and after winning ALL FOUR games last night we should be in fourth or 3rd place next week depending on how the top teams did or did not do. I managed to bowl a 154 average last night which just tickles me green and orange which is the same color as my 15lb bowling ball.

After bowling was over Justin and I piled into the jalopy and headed over to Wallyworld to pick up a couple of items and see how Gizmo was holding up at her cash register. This is back to school TAX FREE weekend so all the rednecks were stumbling over each other trying to figure out how many packages of numbe two pencils and Big Chief tablets to buy for their kiddos. It was a sight to behold I tell ya... While at Wallyworld we picked up a special edition copy of HellBoy. Justin was so happy I thought he would pee his pants but luckily for me he did not do it. Whew.... The kids and I stayed up until 1:33 am watching Hellboy and then we all piled off to bed for some quality snoring time. It is now 2:44 am and I am banging on the keyboard thanks to my Happy Nappy Time yesterday afternoon and Katy is trying to get to sleep and by now the kids are probably snoring right along with the dogs and other assorted critters we have living here.

In hopes that the Sominex that I just took will kick in soon I am going to stop babbling here for the time being and head back to my pillow and see if I can get some quality drool time in. You noticed I did not say "beauty sleep". I gave up on that hope years ago. Bwahahahahahahaha Poor Gizmo...

Nite Nite

Guess which school this is.... 

Dry Marker board at front of new classroom.... 

Katy Moffitt, all smiles in her new classroom. 

Katy Moffitt at Sangaree Middle School in her new classroom.  

I am happy to report that Katy has landed a long term substitute teaching position at a new school in Sangaree teaching ED kids. Katy has a special love for ED kids and that is probably why she has been able to put up with me for the last 14 + years without killing me. LOL.. Anyway, Katy called me up all smiles on the telephone when she found out that she was hired for the long term sub position. This position will give her some more experience while she finishes out the process to become a full time teacher in the state of South Carolina. I am sure Katy can give you a lot more information about what all this requires with regards to the process and the new school she will be teaching at. Honey, do you feel a blog coming on or what? LOL...

I am sitting here at work at the City Magistrate's office counting the minutes until time to get off which will be 5 pm or 1700 hours by the military clock. In this office we have Small Claims Court and the place to file eviction notices with regards to real estate issues. Can you imagine the stories that I hear coming through this place during the day?
Just yesterday I was looking out into the parking lot and a mother had decided to let her three juvenile sons out of the SUV so that they could practice tinkling on the fire hydrant at the edge of the property. I guess they could not come inside and use the restroom like normal human beings....

I am thankful for the ability to write e-mails offline via my Pocket PC and be able to blog offline and then synchronize when I connect to the home network when I get home. It gives me something to do when my eye lids begin to slam shut out of sheer boredom. When I work downtown at the county office building there are all sorts of people to talk to and other security officers to interact with so you do not have to worry about getty sleepy. Have you ever tried to stay awake for 8 hours with almost nothing to do to occupy your time? Luckily for me the client does not mind my doing something to keep awake and semi alert. That means I can read the paper and blog offline and write e-mails. Wahooooo. I actually read USA Today and The Post and Clueless from cover to cover this morning between 8:30 am and about noon. Between 1200 and 1300 I ate the lunch that my sweet wife packed (minus a drink) and then it was back to sitting here wondering what to do next other than dozing off in my chair. From time to time I go outside and stumble around in the stifling humidity filled air and then come back inside to enjoy the COLD AC inside the building I am at.

I can not wait to get into my red chariot and roll down the windows in this heat and drive home. Luckily the drive home only takes 25 minutes but without AC in the jalopy it makes things miserable. I admit, I am spoiled. I want the AC unit blowing ice cubes on me when I am driving down the road. My AC in my car, as you have probably already guessed, is not cooling squat. I can not tell you how much that stinks considering we are only 5 days into August and I have another 45 to 60 dog days of summer left to endure. Maybe I will get lucky and sweat off a couple of pounds in exchange for now AC....

Another rapids shot with Kristina still in the front of the boat on far side... July 2004 

Another rapids shot with Kristina in front of boat.... July 2004 

July 2004 Rapids trip Kristina at front of boat on far side with yellow hat. 

Rapids Trip Kristina Moffitt on front of boat with yellow hat July 2004 

Three year aniversary tomorrow

For the first time in a LONG time we went to bed before 11 pm which means that I woke up at 5:30 am as well. I had my 7 hours of sleep and now I am wide eyed and bushy tailed. Katy got up to go to the restroom, stumbled into the kitchen and observed us for about 2 minutes and then stumbled back into the bed and is now circling Pluto or some other planet by now. Poor dear has been pretty tired lately with all of the work she has been doing at Wallyworld.... Speaking of Wallyworld it is amazing to me how many people living in Charleston SC who have never heard of Walmart being called Wallyworld. I guess that either makes me weird or they have been living under a rock. Maybe they just do not even go to Wallyworld and therefore would not have a clue... Either way, they are missing out on some great prices and are not going to meet great people like us.

Tomorrow, August 5, 2004 marks three years since our daughter Jessica graduated to her place in Heaven. Its very hard to believe that she has been gone that long. Just yesterday I was reading an article about a young girl who was 8 years old who had the same type of pediatric cancer who ran a lemonade stand called Alex's Lemonade Stand. Apparently she started it to raise money to donate to the childrens hospital where she was getting treatments. Alexandra was her name and she had a dream to raise 1 million dollars for the childrens hospital in hopes that they could use the money to care for other children just like her. This is the link to the website that talks more about Alexandra and the charity lemonade stand she started. Alex's Lemonade Stand As I was reading this story of course I started to think about our Jessica and that Jessica had something very similar to little Alexandria. It is so sad when little children get this sick and then ultimately lose their battle with cancer and die. These children bring so much life and cheer into our worlds even when they are sick.

Our lives will never be the same folks. Our Jessica is gone in body but she is still here in spirit and a part of our family. Jessica was only one part of our family but like our other children she was an important part of our family who brought who she was into the family environment. Jessica was the peace keeper of the four children. Jessica was always mending fences and being the referee or moderator between Justin and Kristina. More often than not she wound up protecting her younger more mild mannered brother from his older more agressive sister Kristina. Jessica was so full of life and was a very loving child.
Jessica loved riding her bycycle and coloring in her coloring book. Jessica loved visits to see Ed the apple eating and daddy biting horse down the street. One late evening 3 years ago Katy and I were feeding Ed his nightly snack when we ran out of goodies. I was apparently too close to the fence and Ed's ever powerful jaws when he became upset at the loss of goodies, reached across the fence and nibbled on my tummy. Gosh, that hurt.
LOL... Something to remember my Jessica by I suppose.

As of last Tuesday my tour with Goodwill ended. After 4 months of working there I decided that I could not work in that environment such as it was. I guess you could say the PC Recycle Center that I was working in was going through some major growing pains and undergoing some daily transitions that were sort of painful. I tried as I might to try and deal with the stresses that were associated with the job. Sadly enough I am sorry to say that it just did not work. Perhaps I was the wrong person for the job to begin with.
Well anyway, so much for that, the Goodwill chapter has closed. The important thing for me to say at this point is that Goodwill as an organization is an awesome organization in that they turn 92 cents of every donation back into programs that reach out into the community and help those who are struggling or less fortunate than I am. Atleast when I took this job I held on to my security job to see if this was going to work out. When I first took the position I felt that there would be some possible conflicts with my immediate supervisor. Knowing that going into this environment I made sure to have a safety net just in case things did not work out. I am so glad that I did not quit my security job because now I have been able to go back to a full time schedule with them.
There is no shortage of work when it comes to folks needing security in this day and age.

One of my four children, Jeremy who lives in a suburb of Houston Texas is attending summer school in Wharton. Actually, he is taking college courses during the summer. Jeremy is studying music theory. I am trying to wrap my tiny little brain around what exactly music theory would be. I guess it is a good thing he is taking this course and not me. LOL.... I do know that I love music and sound and that I enjoy working with it at church. I handle all of the technology related tasks with regards to audio and video needs. I am the guy that sits in the sound booth and either makes you sound good on stage or if I chose to I can make you sound like a chipmunk on steroids. The digital effects module of the sound board can do some pretty funny things with your voice. So, with that said, be sure to be nice to the sound guy because he can either make you or break you when you are singing. LOL... I am very proud of Jeremy Moffitt. Jeremy is on a wonderful track and he is pursuing something that he loves very much which is music.

Well, it is time to get ready for our mens fellowship meeting and a day at the City Magistrate's office doing security. Have a great day!!