Look Out Tiger, Here Comes Will!

My son is a sports fanatic at a young age. He loves any and every sport you can think of. He loves to play it, but surprisingly he will watch most sports as well. He's even gotten to where he will watch golf on tv. What's really funny is that he picks up on everything. After watching some basketball games with me, I found him one night watching a basketball game and I heard him saying, "Come on ref!" I about lost it when I heard that. Funny kid.

Anyways, he has a basketball goal in his room he shoots on, a baseball tee, ball and bat, footballs galore, a soccer goal (as you can see in the video below), and a golf club set. Lately, he has been taking his golf club and plastic balls outside to hit some balls around the yard. THE KID IS GOOD! Now, keep in mind he is only 2. So he doesn't make contact everytime. But, when he does, look out. Here are some picture with a video at the end. Notice for a 2 year old he has pretty good form. Much better than dad (that's not saying much).







I know, our yard needs a little work. We just moved in to this house, so we are working on it. Now, the video. Sorry for the tree limb that appears a little more than halfway through. I am a self proclaimed amatuer.

Goal!

This is Will's video soccer debut. You thought it was big news when Beckham came to the USA to play? Not even close to when William Garrett made his debut in Jacksonville Florida on his new ESPN soccer goal. We kept saying "Score!", but the guy is actually saying, "Goal!" It's sometimes hard to understand the ESPN Deportes announcers.

Old But New

I have a couple of videos that I just put up on youtube the other day. We have had so much going on that I finally found the time to sit down and convert them and upload them to the internet. One is from right before Christmas, and the other is from the week of Thanksgiving.

The first video below is from the week of Thanksgiving. One of the ladies at church had asked if I would come to her school and read to some elementary classes. I was supposed to wear my pajamas as part of it because it was "Pajama Day" at school. I decided to dress the part and to bring Will along with me. This is a clip of early that morning, so that is why I sound funny.



This next video is of Will the night we got our first real live Christmas Tree. He was so excited about it because we had been talking it up. Enjoy!

Starting Him Early

This past weekend was the Lads to Leaders Convention. Thousands of kids, K-College, gathered to lead a song, read scripture, say a speech, perform a puppet show, compete in Bible Bowl, and many other things. Will is only 2, so he is not eligible, but that doesn't mean he isn't starting early. This is him leading Jesus Loves Me in front of his podium at home, and then saying a prayer.

Finally...

We move! So the closing is scheduled for tomorrow at 10 am. We have been busy all day packing boxes and doing some shopping. We are so excited to finally be moving out of the apartment and into our new home. I will try and post some pictures next week of the new house with some furnishings.

Let me just say also how good God is. He has taught us some patience in all of this, and also that he will answer our prayers, just not necessarily on our time. We were thrown a huge curve a few weeks ago when we found out that closing cost were going to be about $4000 more than what we had expected. This was very tough for us because it took the money we were going to use to fix up the house. We decided to just deal with it because what else could we do? Well, today, when I called to find out the exact amount I needed to bring to closing, it was $3,000 less than what she had told us when she told us of the $4000 increase. Needless to say we were elated, and now we can loosen our belts and breathe a little easier knowing that we are now $3000 richer.

Please continue to pray for us as Tammy is now 30 weeks along and has to deal with the discomforts of pregnancy. She is doing good with it though and I love her muchly!

Funniest Commercial Ever

I ran across this commercial again. I remember seeing it when it first came out and I laughed hysterically! It's still funny to me years later. Enjoy!

Home Update

So we were supposed to close this past Friday morning, move Friday night, and be in our new home over the weekend. Well, thanks to the bank, that didn't happen. Home buying is so frustrating when the seller is a bank. Again, they are taking their sweet time and didn't get the info into the title company so that we could close. So, right now, we have no idea really when we will close. Could be this Friday, but I am not going to hold my breath.

By the way, the selling bank that is dragging their feet in all of this is Wells Fargo. They are by far the worst bank I have ever had any dealings with. I had a car loan through them that I paid off and it took me a month to convince them that I had paid it off, even though the payment had cleared and they showed it in their system. They kept calling me telling me my payment was overdue when I had paid them $15,000. I guess it threw them for a loop when I didn't make my normal $350 a month payment. Long story short, do your best to avoid this company. In multiple dealings with them, they are not very customer friendly.

Update on the House

Okay, so here is the latest on our new home purchase. Tomorrow the air conditioning unit is being installed. Someone stole the old one off the back of the house, or maybe the previous owners decided to take it with them, who knows. The appraisal should be Monday or Tuesday of next week, and we expect it to appraise for way more than we are paying for it, since it is a foreclosure. The final inspection is on Tuesday, the genius inspector didn't finish it the first time because he said the power and water was off. He didn't bother to try flipping the breakers (the power was on) or turning the water valve outside on to allow water into the house (the water was also on). So, we have to go through that again. Other than that, everything looks to be right on schedule for our closing next Friday, the 15th. Needless to say, we are more than ready to move out of this apartment. I will post some pictures of the house once we get moved in and are able to fix it up a bit. Ta ta for now.

What's 3 months?

So I haven't posted in 3 months. So what? I was trying to be a better blogger towards the end of last year, but I fell off something fierce. So what has happened in 3 months? Well, a good bit. My wife is still pregnant and still due in May, but we found out we are having a girl. I was pretty excited because I really did want one of each. One of our friends from church had a girl and I think that made me really want to have one as opposed to another boy.

Well, we had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas. Got to see family and that is always good. I promised Tammy after the holidays that I would really get going on trying to find a house. Well, she and Will took a cruise the first of January and while she was gone I put an offer on a house, and they accepted. So, now we are just waiting for the normal stuff like the inspection and all. Hopefully we will close on the 15th of February. For pics of the new house, visit my wife's blog. There is a link to it on the upper right hand side of the blog.

The preaching is going well. We just finished our first year at Lake Forest and we really love it here. We have a great family to work with. We are excited about getting into our new home so that we can have people from church over to spend some time with them.

We have a lot coming up in the next few months. I am speaking at a youth rally this month and am scheduled to speak as a part of a gospel meeting sometime this year. Lads to Leaders is right around the corner and I am the Song Leading coordinator for the boys this year in Orlando. We'll see how that goes:) I am also doing a wedding here at church in April, so we have a lot going on between now and May when my little girl will be here.

I'll try and post some pictures and videos, since I have some but am obviously behind on posting anything. I promise to do better...we'll see how that works out!

Hot Pockets!

Found this video by a very funny comedian, Jim Gaffigan about Hot Pockets. I laughed so hard I got the best ab workout I've had in a while. Enjoy!

Gospel Meeting

I haven't written in about a week because last weekend I was in Raleigh, NC for a wedding. I flew back into Jacksonville on Sunday morning for the start of our Gospel Meeting. It ran Sunday and every night through last night. Needless to say we have been super busy, not to mention worn out. The Gospel Meeting went very well. We had Bro. Lovell C. Hayes from Jackson, TN. That man can preach the word, and do it plainly and easy to understand. He was pretty humorous and definitely got his point across. If you want to hear any of the lessons or see his Power Point lessons, just visit our church website here.

Are You Ready For Some Football???

Yeah, so last night I was able to attend the Monday Night Football game seeing the Jacksonville Jaguars play the defending Super Bowl Champs, the Indianapolis Colts. I ended up having to go alone, but I didn't mind too much since I really wanted to go. I purchased my ticket after I got there (from a scalper) about 90 minutes before kickoff. Those guys are unbelievable by the way. I wanted to punch one of them in the face. They are VERY aggresive and basically will harass you if you don't buy a ticket from them. Anyways I ended up with a pretty good seat and enjoyed the game even though the Jags didn't put up much of a fight. Just a few observations about the game and then you can see the pics and video below.

This game was won on the line and the Jags were outplayed on both the defensive and offensive line. They weren't able to get pressure on Manning, and if you don't do that, he will pic you apart. Manning threw one amazing pass at the end of the 3rd quarter that he literally threaded between 3 defenders. I know Brady has great numbers this year and has won multiple Super Bowls, but I would take Manning over him as my QB any day. The Jags are a decent team, but lack playmakers at QB and WR. I just don't see them doing much until they upgrade at those positions and maybe on the offensive line as well. Oh well, enjoy the pics and video below.







Here is the video of the Jags taking the field

It Was A Good Day...

Well I can surely say that today was a very good day. We started out this morning by going up to the church to do some door knocking for our upcoming gospel meeting. We handed out around 300 flyers in the neighborhood around the church. After that we went and picked up some lunch and went back to the apartment. We dropped off Mommy because she wasn't feeling too good and Will and I went to the park to play some ball. I bought him a t ball set along with the bowling set I bought last night (it was buy 1 get 1 free at Toys R Us last night). So we went out on an actual little league field and he hit the ball and ran around the bases every time he hit it. Needless to say he was worn out about an hour later. We came home and took a nap and watched the Miami-FSU game. I will admit, I didn't think my team would win, but they came out on top 37-29. That's what I call a good day. Complete with working for the Lord, spending time with my family, and cheering my team on to victory!

Bowling Night

So Tammy hasn't been feeling too good as of late because she is pregnant again. With Will, she really wasn't sick hardly at all. With this one, however, she has been feeling sick quite a bit. Some would say that's a sign it's a girl, but I don't know about that. Anyways, Will and I decided to have some fun and have "guys night" since Mommy didn't feel good. So, after going to the playground, we went to Toys R Us and picked up a little bowling set. Needless to say, he had fun knocking down the pins over and over again. I shot a little video footage of it...

Miami Game

So a few weeks ago (I know I'm a little behind in posting) I took Tammy down to the Orange Bowl in Miami for her first Miami home game. She had been to a Miami game before on the road, but never one down there. That was part of my motivation, the other part was because this is Miami's last year in the OB. We were buying seats once we got to the stadium, so I was willing to pay a good bit to get good seats so she would have a good experience. Well, my Grandfather, Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin all came with us. This is especially signifigant because my Grandfather is in a wheelchair and therefore has to sit in the handicap section. We ended up being able to all sit with him, which meant our tickets were cheaper than they would have been anywhere else in the stadium ($25 per). We were also on the front row of the closed in section of the end zone. Needless to say, we had great seats for this game. Not to mention Miami played and beat Texas A&M, who was ranked at the time. Here are some video clips I shot while there. Enjoy!


This is a video of Miami's Offensive Line working out before the game. See how close we were!


This is the team coming out on the field through the smoke.


This is Graig Cooper (RB) scoring the first TD of the game. That's my cousin Jonathan holding his hands up and then flashing the "U" at a camera man close by.

Jags Game and Old Friends

This past Thursday night, Tammy and I happened upon some tickets to the Jaguars final preseason game vs. the Redskins. We sort of got them 3rd hand. At any rate, it was our first Jags game and Tammy's first NFL game. I took some pictures while there, including a couple of Santana Moss, who played at Da U. Here's the funny part, we went with a couple of other friends from church, although they had tickets in a different part of the stadium. In the second half we went to sit with them because they had an almost entire row empty. I look up about 2 rows behind me and see a guy I first met at Leadership Camp in the early 90's, went to Faulkner with my freshman year, and haven't seen in several years. What a small world! His name is Dale Pratt and he is in the last photo.

Jaguars Practice

Last night, Tammy, Will, and I went to the Jacksonville Suns game with a group from church. It had come to my attention that the Jaguars would be holding their last practice open to the public at the same time as the game. So, we worked out a little compromise and went to the Jaguars practice for 30 or 45 minutes, and then over to the baseball game. I took some pics of the players as they came out to practice. Only the important ones of course. Well here they are, enjoy!



Byron Leftwich - QB #7



Ernest Wilford - WR #19




Marcus Stroud - DT #99



Matt Jones - WR #18



Maurice Jones-Drew - RB #32



Mike Shula - QB Coach



Rasheed Mathis - CB #27



Reggie Nelson - S #25



QB's Practicing - Guy in the blue is the head coach, Jack Del Rio. Guy on the left in the white top is Mike Shula, QB coach and former head coach of Univ. of Alabama

Celtic Woman

Okay, so anyone who knows me, really knows me, knows that I love music. I can remember growing up always walking around with earphones on my head. Now, my music taste has changed very much from high school to college to single adulthood to family man. I listen to music that I guess I would have listened to before, I just would have never admitted it. I like artists like Alison Krauss and Michael Buble.

Long story short, my wife and I were flipping around the other night and stopped on some channel that was showing a concert. There were 5 women singing and the song that they were singing was "Over the Rainbow" which we all know from the Wizard of Oz. I stopped to listen and was mesmerized by their rendition of this song. I kept it there to continue to listen and continued to be amazed. I love music that makes me relaxed and that is exactly what this did as I layed there in bed watching. We checked the TV Guide channel and found out that we were watching a concert by a group called "Celtic Woman" and they were promoting their album "A New Journey".

So my wife and I were out Saturday night and we stopped by Best Buy and picked up the album. I was not disappointed. Man, it's great. Let me encourage you to pick up this CD if you think you might like it. You will not be disappointed. If you want a sample, go to amazon.com and you can hear :30 second samples. My favorite of the CD so far is their version of "Beyond the Sea". They also do "Scarborough Fair" which is a classic. Let me recommend this and encourage you to check it out.

Chris Farley Reincarnated????

Do you believe in reincarnation? I didn't until I saw this photo. Could this be the reincarnation of the deceased Chris Farley? You be the judge.

Vanilla Ice Will

Alright, who doesn't love some Ice, Ice, Baby? I still remember being in the 9th grade when this song came out. It never gets old. Everytime I hear it on the radio I have to turn it up. There is a station here in Jacksonville that plays a good mix of 80's, 90's, and today's music, and they will play this song fairly often. Anyways, it came on one evening while in the car and Will was getting down to it. I pulled out my phone and shot this video (that's why the quality is so poor). Enjoy!