it be done... finally!

We did it, we did it! Just a short 1 1/2 years in the making, but we finally launched our newest redesign of our web site at work. It took a while, and one redesign was shot down just days before launch and we had to start all over again.

So it was a lot of work and we all had a lot of time vested in it, but it was all worth it for today's launch. This was the smoothest since I have been there. When it came down to launch time, all we had to do was edit one file and bingo! it was there. As with anything, we did have a few bugs that we had to work out, but very few compared to what we could have had.

We had a lot of new features built in that are a good start to more advanced stuff later. I did some interviews for our programmer position today and even had one cadidate that has not only Flash experience, but Flash Streaming Server setup and design experience! So we are excited about that as we are trying to utilize more and more video.

Anyway, if you want to check out where all my gray hair came from lately, just take a look at www.chickasaw.net.

And here is a little "before and after" of our site.

Before


After

spike moffat

That is right, that is the new name of our youngest! haha... Dylan got a hair cut last night at Vicki's house. Vicki styled it for him before she brought the kids home tonight. I told him that I am jealous of his hair though, it looks really good! See what you think. And notice the mouth FULL of graham cracker he has going on. I don't think he could fit another crumb in there!



Also, I have heard from several saying that the videos in the Memorial Day gallery aren't working. They do, but not with Windows Media Player. I am going to try and get those converted to another format over the weekend and I will replace them. Just wanted to let everyone know.

memorial day weekend fun

We took the kids over to Randi's folks on Sunday for a little fun and relaxation, and to celebrate Ryan's birthday. Vicki made some homemade ice cream and we had some cake and just a good ol' time.

After the cake and ice cream, and the gift opening, we took the kids outside for some time in the sun and water. Vicki and Travis had picked up a slip-n-slide and they hooked that up in their backyard, and the kids went to town on it! Dylan and Kaitlyn had so much fun that it was nearly impossible to get them off of it. haha... Here is a link to some photos and videos that I took of them playing.

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After the kids finished with the slip-n-slide, Travis took us over to their neighbors pond for some fishing. Kaitlyn wanted to fish with me, so we cast out our first time, and BOOM!, we caught a little perch. Then Kaitlyn, trying to be somewhat adventerous, decided she wanted to touch it, and she did, but that was enough apparently. Because she didn't touch any of the others.

Then, Randi's brother, Brandon, was fishing down the bank from us, and we start hearing some hollaring. Come to find out, a water moccusin started towards the shore. But Brandon used his jig and hooked it, pulled it on shore, and then killed it. Thank goodness becuase I was about to go running to the bed of the truck! haha...

But Kaitlyn and I ended up catching about 6 more. They were all little perch and bass. But we did get one that was about 1 - 1.5 pounds. But the fish were really biting. I think that everyone ended up catching some. Brandon was hauling them in just about one after another.

After the fishing we headed back to Randi's folks and ended the night with some very tasty burgers and hot dogs. Pretty fun time though. And the best part was that the kids were so exhausted that the slept in the next morning until after 9am! That Never happens! They are usually up by like 6 or 6:30 on the weekends. So that was a real bonus for Randi and me.

the new pony

Vicki and Travis brought over a new pony for the ol' farm last night. Well, it is the size of a pony, but is actually a rocking horse. It is very beautiful though!

The pieces were designed and cut out by Randi's grandpa, Andy. Randi's mom took them and finished the rest of it. I just can't say enough though. It is just really awesome looking.

And the kids love it! Kaitlyn just jumps right on it and goes to town. Now Dylan though is a bit more cautious. He will walk up to it, point and grunt. And then as soon as you approach him, he will turn around and run! haha.. But he is getting better. When I was gathering his breathing treatment this morning, he did that and then he let me put him on it. He just rocked and rocked and laughed. He doesn't get it going that much, but you can tell it is enough for him.

Here are some photos of "Big Brown" and the kids on him.

      

happy memorial day weekend

Hope everyone has some good activities planned for the long weekend.

Of course it looks like Mr. Weather may decide not to cooporate a little, but who knows, it is Oklahoma, just wait a few hours. haha...

We are going to be going to a birthday party on Sunday.  Who knows, if it is nice enought, we may have to break out the ol' slip-n-slide!  That would most definitly be good for a few laughs (and some funny photos)!

Well, here is hoping everyone has a good, safe, long weekend!

couple photos

These are just a couple of photos I found of the kids that were funny. Enjoy.

   

something looks different, doesn't it?

Hhhmmm....  Something is different.  I know it, but I just can't put my finger on it... What is it... hhhmmm...

Oh yea!!   A NEW THEME! haha..  Yes, as you can see, Jonathan got bored again, so I it is time to update the theme.  But I am glad I did, this one is pretty darn cool lookin'.

Hope you all enjoy it.

Oh, and Dad...  I am working on getting the newer photos uploaded... Sorry it took so long.. haha..  :)

what a monday

If you have seen the movie Office Space, you will know that there is nothing worse then having a "case of the Mondays".  Well, our house just didn't have a case of the Mondays, the Mondays ran over us, backed up and then forward, then backed up again and peeled out all over us! haha...

First, unfortunatly, we didn't get the house we had an offer in on.  The more we talked about it, the more we really wanted it.  But the owners decided that our last offer that was $5,000 less than what they asked for, was not even worth continuing to negotiate, and decided to walk.  Well, they have been trying to sell that house for over 7 months now, and if this now makes the second time they walked just shy of thier asking price.  So now I just hope they are stuck with it.

Then I get a call from Randi with the words that I dread to hear, "I had a wreck". Yep, Randi decided to play bulldozer with '84 Nissan pickup.  Luckily she was ok, and she had just dropped Kaitlyn off back at day care from her doctors appointment, so there weren't any injuries.

The Nissan was driving towards Randi and decided to shotgun across the road in front of her to turn into an intersection.  The road was a 4 lane road though, and there was a big truck in the inside lane, so the Nissan couldn't see Randi coming up beside the truck and just went for it.  Randi yanked the car hard to the right to try and dodge them, but ended up hitting them square in the passenger door.

Her little Saturn car, just a scratch a about a pencil size bit of paint that is messed up.  The Nissan, the passenger door is now shaped like a U and the passenger door window is gone. haha...  Who would have thought it.

But there was maybe some good.  Our Realtor called and she ended up finding a house in Latta, where we really want to be at, and it is under 100,000 and it is 3 bedroom, 2.5 baths, 2 car garage, fenced back yard and a storage shed in the back yard.  WOW!  I drove by it tonight and it looks good on the outside.  We are supposed to go look at it tomorrow though.  So we are keeping our fingers crossed.

And just think, it is only Monday! haha...

happy anniversary jake and trish!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JAKE AND TRISH!!  One year, man, it seems like only a few months ago it all went down.

Well you all have a gorgeous daughter to show for it.  We love you!

craft-master randi!

Well, my friend Harley and his wife Nicole had their baby shower today. They are very excited about the upcoming birth of Chloe.

Randi was invited to the baby shower, and she decided to get in craft mode for it. And so she did. She whipped up a diaper cake, the likes of which I haven't seen. She sat down at the coffee table and started working at it last night about 7:45-8, and by about 10:15 she has the finished product you see below. It was a site to see, and Harley and Nicole liked it very much!

The burp cloth you see in the third photo was made for Harley and Nicole from Randi's mom, Vicki. She has been fielding a number of requests for these lately, and has been doing an outstanding job at them. They are gorgeous!

This is view #1 of the grand diaper cake (that Kaitlyn kept wanting to eat "I want a bite of cake... " haha...)

This is just another view of the awesome diaper cake.

This is the burp cloth that Randi's mom made up for them.

all better now

Well, Joel, our landlord, just left after REPLACING the hot water heater! We love Joel!! haha..

So tonight (or tomorrow morning) we can have warm showers! YEA!

And I guess something good that may have come from this, is that I learned a little on how to replace a gas hot water heater. So if we end up in a house where it needs to be replaced, I know to call someone else! haha...  No, I know that I will need to learn some of this "DIY" stuff, but I usually tend to mess things up worse!

cold water days (and nights)

Well, we have ran into another snag in that which is our lives. Yesterday morning, during my shower, the hot water didn't seem to be as hot as usual. But it had gotten pretty cold the night before, so I just figured that was it. But last night when I got home and tried to run water to do dishes, I noticed the cold water wasn't even warm at all!

So I finally decided to check out the hot water heater. Well, the pilot light was out on it. So I tried to light it, but it wouldn't have it. So I figured I better check out the propane tank. It showed just under 20%, so I just new we were fine. But through the rest of the evening I kept trying to light it and it just wouldn't stay lit. So we ended up calling our landlord. He was kind enough to come over, even though it was late. He tried to light it and it wouldn't work either. Then we decided to blow it out with an air tank, and that didn't work.

So after all that we decided the gauge must be wrong. So I called our friendly propane guy down the road and he brought us propane first thing this morning. Except he found that our gauge wasn't messed up, and that instead, it was the thermal coupler on the hot water heater.

So we have notified our landlord, and are hoping that there is something he can do to fix it. The ice cold shower this morning isn't one that I want to repeat anytime soon! haha...

the results are in...

Nothing special, but I thought I would share. This is my spring 2008 grade report from ECU.

I AM FINALLY A JUNIOR!!  It only took, um, well, way longer than I wanted it to, we will just say that. haha...

And my GPA that I started with at 1.45, is now a 2.55!!  And I have gone from 40 hours to now 61!  The sad part about that though, is when I compare the number of hours attempted to the number of hours earned.  Unfortunately I have earned 61 hours out of  88 hours.  Not my proudest accomplishment. lol!

spring scores on finals are in...

I did it!! I actually passed my finals! haha...

I know that sounds funny, but my marketing class had me scared to death. Usually I will take a final and then feel like I did good, or at least pretty good. My marketing final, I felt like I completely bombed it, so I was a bit worried. However, I passed!!

So here are my grades on the final. Course final grades are due out on the 14th. But needless to say, baring any addition and division problems, I will have A's in both classes!

In my world music class I made a 96%!

In my principles of marketing class I made a 92% on part 1 and a 92.98% on part 2!

Woo hoo!!

some phone camera pics

Farmer Dylan and Daddy


Kaitlyn's drawings


Spring is here!


I think this is where the kids take after their Daddy


Kaitlyn can't be left out!

we are currently experiencing technical difficulties...

My goodness!! It has been a long time since I have posted, huh? Sorry about that. Let's just say that life got the best of me for a while. Well, not really life, but work and school. We have been working on a project at work for about 2 years now. And we were trying to do all we could to finally get it rolled out. Well, what really happened is we did one redesign about 2 years ago, and it was scrapped right before launch. So we started on another, and did some major new programming and scripting and have made it look very sharp. This is one of those "blow people out of their seats" web sites (we hope!).

Then one of my professors disappeared for about 3 weeks during this semester. Well that put us behind in the syllubus because he only released modules a week before they were due. Well, we were three modules behind. So what he did was make all of them due the day before the final was made available to take. So I had to make a mad dash to read three chapters and then take the quizzes, then watch the videos for them and take those quizzes, then read the case studies and take those quizzes!! Then we had "part 1" of the final that was over the last 5 chapters we covered, followed by "part 2" of the final that was a complete comprehensive final!! OH MY GOSH!! That was not fun at all!

Needless to say, that same professor is keeping to his ability to not show up and do what he says he will. He was supposed to release our 2 part final score online today at noon... um... still waiting.....Anyway. Now that school is over, and we have the redesign project at work turned over to our Administrator for launch approval, I am going to try and get caught up on this site. At least until summer session gets here. I get to take Principles of Management over the summer. Both for my degree and for a career development program I am in at work.

To kick things off, I am going to toss some updated photos of the kids on here. They are just getting more ornery day after day. I will be posting more pics over the next few days. I have a good number of them. The ones here make a flip book almost!  Oh, and be sure to read Dylan's shirt.  We thought it fit him to a T! haha...

Kailtyn and Dylan (before)

Kaitlyn and Dylan (after)