round here

2009-07-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

Recieved this in an email the other day and I thought how befitting is was on the week that we celebrate out country's independance. I wondered if the brave men in 1776 thought like this. Family was all they had back then. I wonder if as the soliders marching through towns would have stories like this to tell to people from other towns. It was probably a funny site to my staff to see me this big 250 + man balling like a baby at 8:30 in the morning as I read this on my Blackberry. Thank you for sending this to me Mom and helping me remember what our service men and women go through for little praise and lots of lost time from their loved ones. Still teaching me the things that really matter after 34 years. Read the whole following story.

Will you give this to my Daddy? As a Company, Southwest Airlines is going to support 'Red Fridays.' Last week I was in Atlanta, Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen. Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camos. As they began heading to their gate, everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering. When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not the only red-blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families. Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal. Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said 'hi.' The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her. The young soldier, who didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her Daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek. The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter's name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up. When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second.. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military-looking walkie talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it. After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, 'I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.' He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying 'your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.' The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event. As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek. We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families, and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an American.

The life of luxury

2008-07-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

Well I don't know about y'all but round here life has been happening. It has been a very long time since I have posted a blog, and it is for a good reason. Writers block, wife in nursing school who has finally graduated, graduation of said wife from nursing school which means family and friends in town, so on and so forth. Also, work has been crazy. In 48 days I have only had 3 days off and one of those days I had to run an errand for the boss. Crazy comes to mind right now.

So what brings me back to the world of blogging. The life of luxury that we have lived and are living. No, no, no I don't mean finacial luxury, which I hope will be here soon as the wife becomes employed. I am talking about the luxury talked about in the bible. Yes round here we are card carring members of the Christian faith. When I talk about the bible I am talking about the one and only bible, The holy bible. Yes Gods spoken word. The bible talks about abundant life and how we are blessed with that once we accept his son Jesus. In all of the craziness that I discussed in the prior paragraph I realized that we do have life and have it abundantly. We are very blessed to have not had to endure the pressures of the world that others have in the last year. You see serving and I really mean that word serving God has made us realize that He is in control. While others are losing things we are paying off debt, thanks Dave Ramsey. While others are worried about their jobs, work for the company I am employed by has increased. We are very blessed

Also, I wanted to write to seek your prayers for my loving wife. She is in Augusta Ga right now trying to sleep the night before she takes boards. In short tommorow is one of those days you look back on and say that was the day that life turned around for us. God is in control and we know that but still pray for her and lift her up tommorow. So in short trust in God and live in His life of luxury because it is so much better than the worlds.

Oh the good ol' days

2008-02-08T13:10:00.000-08:00

So I am a spring chicken, but I do know that times have changed especially in the area of work. If you grew up like I did you probably heard the stories of walking uphill both ways in 4 feet of snow with no shoes pulling a donkey with their teeth, yea right when has it ever snowed 4 ft in Ga. I know that my Grandfather, fondly know to me as papa, did do stuff like that. He was the hardest working man in the world. When I was a child, only just a few short years ago, my Papa worked for the county extention office. Those of you who aren't well versed in southern jobs the county extention agent is also known as the 4-H guy. Papa was a little bit more than just the 4-H guy. He would help all the farmers in the area with their crops teach, the children about bein good ol southern gentleman, and was also a decon at the local baptist church. He also would get up at the crack of dawn work on his own small farm. Then he would go work at the extention office and come home after 8 hrs at work and work again on his own farm. I never heard him complain. The only time I ever heard him complain was when other people wouldn't work, especially anyone in his family. God gave you two hands and told you to till the ground is what he would always say. Oh Papa the good ol days. Papa was such a hard worker he even walked yes walked 18 holes of golf the day he went into the hospital to die. Now how many of you can say that...sorry none of you cause you would be dead.

So that brings us to todays society, I feel people today do not know the meaning of hard work. Now before you get ready to get up a lynching mob for good ole me I may not be talking about you all I have to say is if the shoe fits wear it. Take for example my little friend from south of the boarder, we will call him Juan, he was telling me the other day that even his friends are starting to get americanized. Curious I asked him what that meant and he said they are getting lazy. Now I by any means am not a genius but I think I can pick up that Juan is saying the same thing that I am trying to say. Get up america, go to work, quit waiting for your paycheck to arrive misteriously in your mailbox.

Well I have started my blog

2008-02-06T19:11:00.000-08:00

Well after months of reading blogs and thinking to myself do these people have lives, then realizing wait a minute these people are me, I decided to start one myself. So, here I am, now that we have that out of the way a little about me. My name is Todd and I am a husband to Amy over at hworldadventures, father to the bunkyman and doodlebug. Why did i name my blog round here you ask? Well I was born and raised in the south and round here are very fond words to my heart. It takes on many meanings that only southern folks that eat at Cracker Barrels and Waffle Houses understand, both of which I have at one time or anouther been employed by. Round here is the embodyment of home. Not just the place you live, but the community that surrounds you. The neihbors that you love to death ( hi Fab ), Your childrens teachers, your church family, your co-workers, and so on and so forth, that embodies round here. That is why I named it round here because I hope to envite you into my home. What do I do for a living, well I work with my brother in the construction industry, in short I am a peon who does what my older brother tells me to and get paid to do it, no seriously I am a commercial general contracting superintendant. High paid babysitter if you must, I supervise the building of office spaces in multi-level class A high rises. I know it sounds all important and stuff but it really means that I am the fat guy who yells at all the other workers about not doing something right or on time. Which brings me to the other point of why I named this blog round here, like my father I am not the poster child for health in america henceforth the word round.

Other things about me are I love to cook 13 years in the resturant business will do that to you. I grew up in a kitchen litterally. My grandmother taught me how to love to cook. My father taught me how to love eat what I cook and my mother taught how to put love into what I cook. My wife whom I love dearly did not grow up in this type of culture. I can tell this because her families idea of seasoning food is what ever pesticides and steriods comes with the food that is purchased, plus a little salt and pepper. We have been married for 10 yrs and are still planing our dream house and she still dosen't understand why I want to plan the whole house around the kitchen.

So, that is just a little about me and my home. I don't want to blow everything on my first blog so I should stop. Hope you enjoy this journey ahead and honey I Love YOU.

Oh and one last thing my spelling and sentence structure are not the best in the world so if you find anything wrong or misspelled just laugh and say dumb southerner