Merry Christmas From The Ellison Family

Photography by Pierre and Cathy of Red Kite Studios & Mark Anthony Photography

DTE Music

I took down the post with the My Space Music Player because I couldn't find a way to shut off the auto play. I'm sure there is a way but I'm not code savvy enough to figure it out. If you want to hear us... go to www.myspace.com/downtoearththeband


Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
Mark.

Another Shameless Down to Earth Plug

Copy this code to your website to display this banner!
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DtE will be playing Bourbon Street in New Port Richey on January 30, 2008. This is going to be a cool show. We're doing a live video shoot and our hosts for the evening, J-Rock & Patty, a couple of DJ's from Jacksonville, are broadcasting us live on the radio. If you're in town... come check us out. If you have a blog or my space page or any other kind of web site, grab our banner and post it. Help us spread the word.

Be well and be blessed,
Mark.

Down to Earth update...

We have a new song up and running on our my space page. It's called Little Demon. Go check it out and let us know what you think.

ciao,
Mark.

Funniest Thing I Have Seen In A Long Time

Recording

Did some recording tonight. I did some vocals on our tune Feed Me. Mostly some background stuff but some lead vocals as well. James and I both think the additions took the song to another level. You can hear the tune on our my space page.

www.myspace.com/downtoearththeband

Long Day

Sylvia had a speech and debate tournament today. They always make for long days and the tournament continues tomorrow.

One cool thing that happened today. We got autographed copies of Glenn Beck's new book. The man himself was at the brand new Books-A-Million here in Brandon for a book signing.

I had to teach this evening... I lost 2 students tonight. One because he and his family are moving to Atlanta. The other one is spending all of his time practicing his guitar and not doing his school work. So, his father pulled him out of lessons. What sucks is that he is one of my students that actually works, practices, and is trying to get better. I've only been teaching him for maybe a month and a half or two months and he's been making very good progress. I hope this will motivate him to get his grades up so he can continue taking lessons.

I'm tired and I need to eat something.

Ciao,
Mark.

Oh Yea!!!

The Down to Earth my space site now has over 2000 hits.

We are also going to be shooting a video on January 18, 2008. We don't have a time nailed down yet and we are in the process of finding a location. I'll keep everyone updated.

Ciao,
Mark.

Heroin Diaries And A New Stroller

Finished reading The Heroin Diaries late last night. It's a very good read. Very raw, exposed, and even oozing in parts... I like it because it's honest. No fluff, no filler, no one trying to prove how smart they are with their words. Just the rawness of a life decaying at its core.

One of my favorite parts of the book was reading about a gig in Hollywood Florida at a now defunct venue called The Hollywood Sportatorium. When I was growing up down there the Sportatorium was a big deal. Anyone who was anyone back in the day played there. Even Elvis Presley played there. It wasn't much to look at... just a big metal building in the middle of the everglades. It was in the middle of no where and no one was bothered by the loud music because there was no one around for several miles. Just swamps and alligators.

My most favorite part of the book is the end. Through out the book several people make comments about what was going on at the time the entries were written. Band members, managers, friends, lovers, even Nikki himself. In nearly every comment by these people you can feel the anger, the hatred they all felt towards Nikki. At the end of the book, after Nikki had gotten clean, the commentary changed. The Crue guys no longer hated him... in fact they look to him for advice and even counseling. It wasn't an easy road for Nikki to get clean. He did in fact, relapse and go back on drugs. He got divorced twice. Today he is clean and even more successful than during the heyday of Motley Crue, when the diaries were written. Very cool in my opinion.

Went to our new Super Target today and got Piper a new stroller. Now we can start walking again. I'm looking forward to getting back to it.

Non Descript Day

Not much going on here. Piper and Sylvia are doing fine. Although Piper has her days and nights mixed up. Other than that... no real bumps in the road.

Got an email from my attorney today. He's ready to sue the client that owes me over 4 grand and hasn't paid. This client hasn't even acknowledged that my attorney is even trying to get in contact with them. Criminals are so stupid. I don't really want to be doing this but this client has forced my hand. I have no choice but to sue and that really sucks.

I waisted my time at giving lessons at the music school this afternoon. Giving lessons blows when the students don't show up. Especially when they don't call first. It also blows when they don't practice and their parents blame me for little Johnny not being the next Eddie Van Halen. Not that I care all that much... when all of my grace has been used up, I just drop them or have them transferred to another instructor. I could give lessons all day if all of my students worked and actually put some effort into what they are doing. The music school doesn't care. Not as long as they get their money. I'm considering just taking a small number of students here at my house. Then I could control what and how they learn. And if they slack off... bye! The only real advantage to teaching at the music school is I don't have to chase after payments. We'll see...

A New Read

I read an excerpt of this book on the web site and was hooked--pardon the pun. Anyway, the book is called The Heroin Diaries: a year in the life of a shattered rock star by Nikki Sixx. If you don't know he's the principal song writer and bass player for Motley Crue. There's also an accompanying sound track by his new band Sixx: A.M. This is some of the best rock that I have heard in a long time.

This book is not for the faint of heart. It's rough, raw, and exposed. One cool thing is a part of the proceeds from the book and sound track go to Covenant House. A home for teenage runaways living on the street. The book is taken from diaries that Sixx wrote over a year during the height of Motley Crue and his descent into a drug induced hell. The book also adds commentary from Nikki, his band mates, friends, ex's, producers, managers, and the like. The other cool thing... Sixx has been clean for over 20 years now.

A Good Day

Church was awesome this weekend. We did some "hey sista, soul sista" music. It was happenin'. Then we just spent the day together as a family and Sylvia and I ended the day at Red Lobster and their Cheddar Bay Biscuits. A little grocery shopping and then back home. It was a good day.

What A Day

For starters the baby was up all night. Sylvia has been very gracious to me by letting me sleep most nights all the way through. Then we had to get ready to go the my in-laws church for the Thanksgiving feast with the extended family from Georgia. All in all that turned out great. I never got the final count as to how many were actually there. I had to leave early to go play at church while Sylvia and the kids stayed behind and mingled with family. There was the uncle and aunt that came in from Athens, Ga., two aunts and uncles from Savannah, plus a cousin from there as well, and a cousin from La Grange, Ga.

In my experience, any time family, at least a large group of related people get together there is always some kind of drama. Today was no exception. One of my wife's aunts that came in from Savannah had stopped with her husband at a rest stop on the Interstate and fell flat on her face! Busted herself up real good. The whole left side of her face was black, blue, yellow, some green... and was severely swollen. After she ate lunch a few of the family took her to the emergency room for a CT scan. Nothing was found and they gave her some drugs to make her comfortable. That was only the start of the drama.

Like I said, I had to leave early for church. It was great. We did some very cool songs during the worship set. After church I went back to my in-laws house where everyone that didn't go to the emergency room ended up. When I walked in I was immediately told that I had "missed" it. Oh, great. What? Uncle J gave granny a wedgie!

Now, granny is my mother-in-law. Uncle J is her baby brother. Uncle J is 64 years old and retired. My mother-in-law is, well, let's just say, retentive. She has a very shallow sense of humor. Not only did Uncle J grab her drawers and give 'em a good yank... he also took a metal cookie sheet and smacked her on the butt! Each time he did this he got my oldest niece's attention and said "watch this." And I missed it.... not only that no one had a camera or a video camera going. What's wrong with you people? My wife even asked when it happened if anyone had taken a picture of it my m.i.l.'s baby sister said "you don't have a lense wide enough for that shot." Complete with hand gestures. To which Uncle J replied "at least not for you two."

My oldest niece and nephew agreed with me that the next time this bunch get together that it doesn't matter if we have to beg, borrow, steal, bit, kick, punch, scream, or cry; we must have a video camera set up and ready to go. These folks are a mess.

Ok, I'm getting sleepy. I have to be at church in the morning at 6:45 am.

Later,
Mark.

I Missed A Day... Crap!

I had been trying to write one post per day for the month of November. November is national blog posting month... Nablopomo for short--or something like that. I didn't sign up officially for the national event but I did take the challenge issued by my buddy Darin over at Interactive Sermon. Darin blogs like it's heroin. He blogs daily and believes everyone should blog. In fact I launched this blog when I found his. I had been thinking about it for some time and finding Darin's blog was the final nudge that I needed to get started.

So, since I did not sign up officially for NaBloPoMo I can get away with doing to posts today. That way I can still have 30 post for the month.

I told you all last Wednesday that Thanksgiving day was lasagne and Italian pot roast day and not turkey day. Well, today is turkey day. Today we are getting together with some of our extended family from So. Georgia and celebrating with a traditional thanksgiving meal. I'm going to have to leave early because I have to play at church this evening. Having said that I need to go do some rehearsal on the tunes. I'll post more later in the evening about the days events.

Later,
Mark.

To All My Family And Friends...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Tomorrow Is Italian Pot Roast And Lasagna Day

Today at 7:29pm Piper was one week old. She is just beautiful! Tomorrow is her first Thanksgiving. It's going to be a get together of the Lee's (Sylvia's side) and the 7 Ellison's. We're all getting together at the Ancient One's (that's what I call my Father-in-law) house. There will be a grand total of 20 family members under one roof. It's going to be a non-traditional meal of Italian pot roast and lasagna because of the extended family that's going to be here on Saturday. We're going to have our traditional turkey and dressing dinner then.

In other Piper news... she had a rough night last night. Actually she had a good night... Sylvia on the other hand... not so much. And yes I helped out too. I helped out as much as I could... Sylvia is nursing her and well, I can't. I mean I could try but Piper would be very frustrated and I would be sore. So my job is to try to get her to sleep. Last night I could not get her to sleep. She faded on me a couple of times for about 5 minutes and the she was on again. Sylvia was up a lot last night.

The coolest and best part of this whole experience so far is just being able to hold her. Tyler, Rachel, and Liam are all old enough to be on the go. They have things to do, places to go, tasks to complete. I can't hold on to them like I used to be able to do. With Piper I can hold her till it's feeding time and when it's over I can hold her some more. I didn't realize this but I have missed that. It's great to see the other 3 kids growing up, becoming self reliant, being able to wipe their own butts after they poop. Before long they'll be gone. It's very nice to have a little one around again.

Just Some News

I'm tired. It was a long afternoon. I had to be at Music Showcase at 4pm to begin teaching lessons till 6, then I had a rehearsal at 7 for the worship services this weekend at church. We are doing some very cool songs this weekend. Songs with lots of soul... and a bunch of white boys playing them. Rehearsal went past 9:15 and I hadn't eaten anything since about 11:30. There is a Chic-fil-a not too far from the church. Good thing.

I talked to James today and found out a company in California called Loggins Promotions wants to take 3 of our songs and test market them. Loggins specializes in marketing, promoting, and tracking artists in commercial radio and tv stations all across the nation. James also told me the bass player we were using a couple of months ago to rehearse with and we even had him go over to the studio and record a bass part, found our my space site and put up some kind of rude, low class message. Apparently he's upset that he isn't our permanent bass player. The reason he isn't a permanent member of Down to Earth is because 1. We had to tell him what to play. No creativity on his part. 2. Because we had to tell him everything to play, he quit. Twice! 3. He talked incessantly about Led Zepplin, or Jimi Hendrix, or Dokken, or whoever... he also bragged about knowing music theory, yet he couldn't even chart out a simple chord chart for our tunes. In other words he talked a lot but couldn't back up what he said.

Now, I'm not burning on the guy... actually he was a pretty nice guy. He just wasn't a fit for the needs of this band. Pure and simple. We need a bass player who can for one, play and two, take direction without getting upset. We need a team player. Fortunately we may have found that guy. The entire band is supposed to get together at DTE Studios this Friday and play. Matt is coming into town tomorrow for Thanksgiving and to rehearse with us. Great things are on the horizon.

In other good news Piper slept through the night last night. Yippeeee!!!!!!

Later......

Pediatric Visit

We took Piper back to the dr. for the second time today. We took her last Friday and the dr. wanted to see her again because of a weight discrepancy. When Piper was born the mid-wife weighed her at 9 pounds, 2 ounces. That was last Wednesday. On Friday the nurse weighed her at 7 pounds, 14 ounces. After the dr.'s visit we went over to Labor of Love, told the mid-wife what the dr. said... she made sure their scale was calibrated and re-weighed Piper. 8 pounds, 2 ounces. Hum?!?

Fast forward to today. The same nurse that weighed her last Friday, weighed her at 8 pounds, 2 ounces. Hum?!? I'm thinkin' the nurse took some creative licence with my daughters weight last Friday. At least there was no charge for today's visit! The short version is Piper is doing great. Healthy as a horse.

In other news... a company out in California, Loggins Promotions, wants to test market 3 or our songs. We have 2 that are almost ready and 2 more that are in various stages of production. After Thanksgiving we are going to word towards wrapping up these tunes, ship them off to Loggins, and get to some Rockin'.

Current count on the My Space page: 1,410 hits.

Pretty Cool!!!!!

I'm out... I've got baby duty. ;-)

Pure Sweetness

Which Superhero Are You?

I found this through a my space page. Being a big fan of anything superhero related since my early childhood, I had to take the test.

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 85% Hulk 70% Superman 65% Batman 60% Robin 55% Catwoman 55% Supergirl 50% Spider-Man 35% Wonder Woman 30% Iron Man 25% The Flash 20%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

More On Piper G

We took her to the pediatrician today and he said she is just fine. Then we took her to the birth center, Labor of Love, where they checked her and Sylvia out. Everyone is doing just fine.

Sylvia, other than just being worn out from her labor, is doing very well. She has had terrible back labor with the other 3 kids and Piper was no exception. Someone was pushing very hard on her lower back the whole time she was in active labor. Thankfully active labor was only 2 and a half hours. With Tyler she was in active labor for almost 8 hours. I spent most of that time with me knee pushing into her lower back. I've witnessed this 4 times now... that's as close as I want to get to it.

The other kids are doing very good with the new addition. Rachel is pretty much beside herself. Yesterday she told me "Daddy, I'm so glad this is not a dream." She's wanted a sister for quite a while now. Liam is being very sweet. He talks to Piper and likes to kiss her on the cheek. Tyler is being "Mr. Cool" but he likes her too. He is constantly checking on his new sister.

I'm being called.... we'll chat later.

Piper Grace Ellison

Piper Grace Is Here!!!

She graced us with her presence at 7:29 this evening. Weighing in at a robust 9 pounds, 2 ounces, and 20 and 1 half inches long.

Sylvia is fine. Very tired but fine. I'll post more pictures later. Right now I'm tired

One More Day...

Tomorrow is the due date. Unfortunately, Sylvia is feeling just fine. Normally that would be a good thing... everyone is waiting for this baby to drop!

More Updates

Only 2 days until the baby's due date. Sylvia went walking with Liam after school today about a mile and a half. She's very uncomfortable right now. Her back is giving her trouble. We're getting closer.

In case I haven't posted what the baby's name will be... if it's a boy, Xander Roe. Roe is a family name on my mom's side of the family. My only male cousin on her side has a daughter and the name will die out so we decided to keep the name going. If it's a girl, Piper Grace. Grace is in honor of our 4 month old niece that passed away 12 and a half years ago.

In Down to Earth news... we are scheduled to go back to Clearwater to Tony's studio to mix 20 Shades of Grey this Thursday. Hopefully by Thursday night or Friday morning it will be up on the my space page. Also, Matt is scheduled to be in town over the Thanksgiving holiday. We are setting something up for Nov. 23 to get together with the bassist we interviewed last Thursday for a full on audition/jam session. We should have it figured out or not if he is the right person for the job. If all goes well I'll post the results here and on the my space page.

See ya,
Mark.

General Updates & Stuff

Church this morning was great. Sylvia stayed home and rested... no real signs that the baby is coming just yet. We are only 3 days away from the due date -- not that the date means that is exactly when he/she will come. So we wait. Oh, and I'm getting hungry.

See ya!

Bass Player Audition Today...

James and I interviewed/auditioned a bass player this afternoon. His name is Steve and he very well could be "the" guy. He has a lot of experience and even though we didn't do a lot of playing this afternoon, what little we did I could tell that he is the real deal as a player. Another good thing is he wanted to work on our songs, which showed initiative on his part.

Matt is going to be in town over the Thanksgiving holidays and we are going to set something up for all of us to get together and jam. Get Matt's opinion of the guy. James and I, at least, felt good enough about him to set this up and go for the next step in the process.

We'll see how it goes.

Ciao,
Mark.

James P.

You gotta love the guy. He deleted one of the "friends" in our my space network because he didn't like a bulletin post the posted. It was titled "midget porn." The post was nothing to do with midgets or porn, just a rant and rave about people on my space just want to up their friend count or wanting comments on their pictures. The post went on to tell everyone to re-post the bulletin and rename it " fake f@#$%^ friends." I sent them a message saying the post was immature and that we would not be a part of that kind of lameness. They sent back a message saying the posted the bulletin because they were "bored" but midget porn got our attention. James came along, saw what the wrote and deleted them.

Way to go James!!!!!!!

I've never been a very big fan of my space. There is a lot of junk and crap on the site. I've even heard it described as a pedophiles wet dream. That's not something I really want to be a part of or want my kids to be a part of. But as with a lot of things in this world it's what you make of it. Are there predators on my space? No doubt. Are there good and descent folks on there too? Absolutely. Personally I don't want my own my space page. The band however is a different story. I think for musicians, businesses, and the like my space is pretty incredible! James and I have been able to make contact with people that other wise we would never have been able to. The kind of networking we are doing through my space was at one time, not too very long ago, unheard of. It's been unreal watching the people who are coming to our my space page. By tonight or early tomorrow we will have had 1000 hits on the site. As of today the site has only been up and running for one month and two days. Pretty incredible if you ask me.

Early on in this my space experience, one of the things that bothered me about the site was the kind of people that are on there. I've seen some rough and dirty stuff on there. Mostly in the form of pictures that people are posting of themselves. I wasn't too sure if I wanted these types of people to be linked with us. And after spending some time with it I've come to this conclusion. We will let anyone join up and link to our page. After all Down to Earth is a Christian band and I don't think Jesus would just turn anyone away just because of questionable character or a racy my space page. When he did walk on earth among us these are the very people that he spent the most time with. Not the religious leaders or the upper class and privileged. He spent his time with the folks who were in the margins of life. There are plenty of people on my space that need the good news message that DTE is trying to spread in our music. Who are we to turn anyone away? That said, the company that James deleted from our network crossed a line. Even if that line was crossed out of boredom or in jest.

What do you think? I'm interested to know.

Baby Shower

Some of Sylvia's colleagues from Brandon High School threw us a baby shower tonight at Mimi's Cafe. The gave us a buttload of diapers, some clothes, a gift card or two, and a car seat. Very cool! They're a great bunch of folks and we are very thankful to them.

Only 6 more days till the baby's due date.

A Good Report

Tyler showed up after school today with his report card. Straight A's. Good job Tyler. I'm very proud of you.

General News And Updates

Things are going fairly well. Sylvia is still feeling very good and is still walking and taking very good care of herself. She's not sleeping too well though. Mostly because she is just in that uncomfortable stage where no matter what, she is just uncomfortable. Last night was the first time I got the feeling she is getting close. She's not there yet (she's not nesting yet) but she is definitely getting closer. I'm ready for this to be over and the baby to get here. In some ways it has gone by very fast. In others not so much. A lot has happened over the course of this pregnancy. The miscarriage scare back in May, the whole shock of her just being pregnant in the first place, leaving one church and finding another, friends moving away, re-connecting with my old friend Darin in New Hampshire for his 40th birthday party (definitely one of the years highlights), Down to Earth starting, finding out who our real friends are... just to name a few. It's been a crazy year so far and probably won't let up very much with the holidays so close. A very large portion of Sylvia's family from Georgia are coming down in a few weeks for Thanksgiving. It'll be nuts for a few days I'm sure. Hopefully the baby will be here before all of them get here. I'm not sure dinner and a show is on the agenda. Then there's Christmas. Enough said.

The other 3 kids are doing fine. Tyler was on the basketball team this year at his new middle school and had an undefeated season. He's doing well in school, as usual. He, on average, always has straight A's. Rachel is doing the best she has ever done in school! Just before school got out last summer we took her off of sugar. The school thought she had ADD and very strongly suggested that we medicate her. Sylvia and I both said no way! Rachel can focus on the things she wants to just fine. We took her to the Dr., as recommended by the school, and at his suggestion we took her off of sugar and all artificial sweeteners. It has made a drastic improvement in her. She was never a behavior problem, she was just always in her own little world. Kind of like her father. The apple, truly, didn't fall very far. Liam is, well, Liam. He's a mess. A very typical third born. Everything is funny to him. I can always count on him to make me laugh. He's the same way in class so he misses a lot the first or even second time around.

Down to Earth is on the move and going great. We are up to almost 850 hits on the my space site in less than a month. We have 3 new songs in the works plus the 3 that Tony, our producer, is mixing. One of the new tune James just wrote this past Sunday. The other 2 are songs that I composed the music and did the arrangement to. James is handling the lyrical parts. Good stuff is coming! The only major hurdle we have to get over is in the bass player area. We have no bass player. I'm confident that that spot will be filled with the right person very soon. It's been very cool to watch how God has weeded out the people who aren't supposed to be here and has put the right people where they are supposed to be. It's been a cool ride.

2007 is not over yet but it looks like, for the Ellison's it's going out with a bang and not a whimper.

Ciao,
Mark.

Pregnancy Update

Only 9 days to go... well, that's the due date. It doesn't mean that he or she will actually come on that day. Anyway, it's getting close!

Road Trip

We loaded up the family this morning and instead of going to church, we got a wild hair and drove up to Ocala to go to church with our good friends Mike & Coleen Wade. Mike is the worship leader at Church at the Springs.

Church was good... lunch was better. We ate at El Toreo. A cool mexican joint that hits you in the face with a pie if it's your birthday. I had some of the best tacos that I have ever had. Plus it's just good to catch up with friends. Especially when you don't get to see them very often. It was a good day.

Down to Earth Update

The band is going great. Last week James and I extended an invitation for Matt Goss to re-join us on drums and he accepted. Matt, roughly 4 months ago, moved to Dalton, Ga. for business reasons. James and I found another drummer to fill the empty slot, but as time wore on it became very clear that he was not the right person for the job. Around this same time our bass player decided he was done. That left James and myself. No problem. The two of us have been busy writing new songs and doing a lot of recording both on our own and with our producer Tony Rockliff.

A couple of weeks ago we began working on a new tune that I composed the music to and have done most of the arranging on. James began working on lyrics, melody, phrasing... all the things that go into song writing and we have emerged with a new tune tentatively titled Little Demon. James likes to call it the "mesmerizing song." It's a hard song to describe... it has a very cool vibe to it with lots of light and shade. It's very moody and in places very heavy. At the same time it's very quite. Like I said... it's hard to describe.

We began doing pre production on it this past week and last night James delivered to me a very rough mix. Rough meaning that the tracks have not been cleaned up, eq'd, etc. and there is a huge "fart" in the middle of the rhythm tracks during the solo section. Stuff that we will take to Tony and he can either fix them or we'll re-record them. The song however is killer... if I do say so myself. The pre production stage is the hard part, for me at least. It's hard not get antsy. I want to have the finished product in my hands because I want people to hear it. I'm finding it hard to be patient. To wait for the process to work it's way to the end. I want it NOW! But.... the reality is is that it's not going to happen overnight. And really I'm glad it's not going to happen fast. I want this thing to be right, not rushed.

Don't forget to check us out on My Space. We've got almost 700 hits so far on the site. Too Cool! Here is the link: www.myspace.com/downtoearththeband

Be blessed everyone,
Mark.

Christmas Gifts From The Heart!

I heard about this web site from the radio this morning. It's called giantmicrobes.com. This what the web site has to say:

Welcome to GIANTmicrobes!

We make stuffed animals that look like tiny microbes—only a million times actual size! Now available: The Common Cold, The Flu, Sore Throat, Stomach Ache, Cough, Ear Ache, Bad Breath, Kissing Disease, Athlete's Foot, Ulcer, Martian Life, Beer & Bread, Black Death, Ebola, Flesh Eating, Sleeping Sickness, Dust Mite, Bed Bug, and Bookworm (and in our Professional line: H.I.V. and Hepatitis).

Each 5-to-7 inch doll is accompanied by an image of the real microbe it represents, as well as information about the microbe.

They make great learning tools for parents and educators, as well as amusing gifts for anyone with a sense of humor!

This is awesome! You can give someone you love bad breath or black death, an ulcer or even mad cow disease. This could be great for the office Christmas party. The boss you don't like... just give 'em a calamity such as flesh eating disease or typhoid fever. That annoying, brain dead co-worker... give 'em a brain cell. The supervisor that just won't go away... give 'em a staph infection. There's so much to choose from.

My favorite part is they say it's a great learning tool. Sure it is. Anyway you gotta check it out. Who knew ebola could look so cute?

www.giantmicrobes.com

A True Story

Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana. He
performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs.

Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radio
station 103.2 on FM dial in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, who was sponsoring a
worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won.


Hi Sue,

Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother.

Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling
down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to
make you realize it's not so bad after all.

Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a
few technicalities of my job.

As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to
the office. It's a wet suit. This time of year the water is quite cool.
So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial
water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of
the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature.

It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is
taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I've
used it several times with no complaints.

What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose
and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit
with warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi.


Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to
itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse.
Within a few seconds my butt started to burn. I pulled the hose out
from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had
happened.

The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my
suit. Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish
couldn't stick to it. However, the crack of my butt was not as
fortunate.

When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding
the jellyfish into the crack of my butt.

I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His
instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five
other divers were all laughing hysterically.

Needless to say I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make three
agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes
before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression.
When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass
helmet.

As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter
running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it
on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber.

The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't poop for two days because my
butt was swollen shut.

So, next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much
worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt.

Now repeat to yourself, "I love my job, I love my job, I love my job."

Now whenever you have a bad day, ask yourself, is this a jellyfish bad
day?

May you NEVER have a jellyfish bad day!!!!!

Pregnancy Update

Only 2.5 weeks to go untill baby Piper (if it's a girl) or Xander (if it's a boy) gets here.

Redneck Ingenuity/Engineering: The Tank Top

The Screaming Frog

Down To Earth on MySpace

Here is our Myspace page.

www.myspace.com/downtoearththeband

Stop by, take a listen... let us know what you think. We only have one song up for now. More are coming in the very near future. The song is called Feed Me. It's only a rough mix... the vocals aren't right yet but they're getting closer.


Ciao, all
Mark.

I Am Humbled

I received this email from my friend Grant this morning.

"Yo...just a note to say that I can't even tell you how much it means that we have kept this friendship going over the miles and over the last year+. I'm watching my life change, layer grow on layer, and so much of it you're in. God has used you to bring me somewhere...after all, He knows I'm a sucker for a really good solo...and then through this relationship, He's taught me so much about so many things. I value your perspective on the questions I'm facing and somehow, you do a good job of turning me around and helping me to face the really important stuff. Thank you.

I finished notating Holy is the Lord tonight. The chords are all sorts of things we've talked about over the last few years...crazy stuff...that when I went to write out what I'm playing, I actually had names for most of it...they may be crazy or unconventional in some places, but I think a decent keyboard or piano player can figure them out. What's nuts is actually writing chords that had me baffled just a few short years, months, or in some cases days ago...thank you for investing in my music and believing in what comes out of my head. I am not the same player I used to be..."

Here was my responce.

"Believe me when I say It's my pleasure and that I'm getting as much out of this as you are. After all isn't this what it's all about. Helping each other out. I heard Andy Stanley give a message/sermon once on duplicating yourself..... taking what little knowledge you have (your cup) and pouring it into someone else's cup. Or in your case it's more of a bowl and letting God fill in the stuff that you, or in this case I, don't know. It's an amazing process to watch and be a part of."

It's been a cool journey so far and hopefully, very soon, I can make it out to see you in Colorado. God has big things in store for you that he is readying you for... that are beyond your wildest dreams. And I get to witness it!

Love you bro.

Down to Earth Update 2

The 3 song demo is done. Well, the recording part of is done. It still needs to be mixed and mastered. Once that is done the demo is being shipped to Word Entertainment, who we are told by our artist development/manager Tony Yazbec, that Word is excited about hearing it. Very Cool. We'll see what develops over the next month or so.

In other DTE news...... it is now down to James Pergolloti and myself. Rob and John have left the band. This is not a bad thing. Things were not going so well with those guys. Ultimately, I think, they were not the right guys for what James' vision of what this band is supposed to be. All the best to them in whatever musical roads they decide to take. James and I are pressing on and will continue to record and write music. Last night I gave James a disc of 6 new tunes I have written over the course of the last week. We are both very excited about where we are at and what we are doing. Keep us in your prayers that the doors that are supposed to open will open and the doors that are supposed to close will close. Hopefully one of the doors that will open is a few endorsement deals. Wouldn't that be sweeeeeeet?!!!

Down to Earth Update

Last Wednesday night James and I drove over to Clearwater to the recording studio of producer Tony Rockliff and I did tracks for one of our tunes called 20 Shades of Grey. Hopefully we will have some mp3's, for all 2 of you who have asked me for them, soon.

...And So It Begins.

Today at 10:30 am I have the unfortunate pleasure of having to meet with my business attorney to begin, what will probably end up as, a lawsuit against one of my clients. I am having to do this because this client is refusing to pay me for design work that I have completed and delivered. I'm not talking a small amount of work either. I did a logo design (which is currently being used by this client.), a tri-fold menu/brochure of their services, 9 or 10 business cards, a postcard for mail outs, a gift certificate/card, a 20% off coupon/card, and web design. All of which, except for the web site, is currently being used to generate income for this client. This client is benefiting from my work but I have received nothing in return. I have sent certified letters and emails asking this person to contact me. I have tried to communicate to this client that I will do whatever they need me to do..... set up a payment plan, whatever, to help them out. I have told this person in the emails I have sent that I don't expect them to pay the entire amount at once. Just please contact me so we can talk.

So far when I have called, which has been numerous times, this client has not been in the office. Right. My wife has called 2 times and spoken with this person regarding this issue but will not speak with me. This has been going on for the last month and a half or so. And we are not talking about a small amount of money. If it were only a few hundred dollars I would move on and write if off of my taxes at the end of the year. But this...... this is several thousand dollars. I can't just walk away from this. This client is putting me in a position that I don't want to be in. I don't like having to force someone to do the right thing but in this case I have no choice.

The good thing is that I learned a long time ago to save everything. I have every email this client has ever sent me and that I sent to them. I shouldn't have any trouble proving my case. Unfortunately I have to use a lawyer to do it. I'll keep you posted.

Michael Ripoll & Jonathan Butler

This video is a few years old but features Kirk Whalums backup band with Michael Ripoll on guitar. Jonathan Butler is singing.

My New Band

About 2 months ago my friend Matt called me and told me about a guy James he had talked to who was looking to put together a rock band. Matt went to his house, met him and saw his rehearsal space. He immediately called me. He said the rehearsal space was amazing and that he really wanted me involved. I went out, met James and saw the rehearsal space. It was indeed amazing. James put a lot of money and time into making a killer place to rehearse. It has drum and backline risers, a full p.a., the works. And, James writes songs incessantly. He's got a ton of material. Unfortunately Matt had to move to Dalton, Georgia for job reasons and is no longer in the band.

Without further ado I introduce to you...... Down to Earth!

James Pergolatti: Lead vocals/Guitar
Mark Ellison: Lead guitar/Vocals
John Curley: Bass
Rob Soltis: Drums

Finally..........

I had my first rehearsal at our new church last night. It was very cool. Especially after the fiasco at our last church. This new church was originally the parent church of Bay Life...... the church we left a little over a year ago. 3 or 4 years ago Bay Life helped launch a new church in southern Hillsborough county called The Point. This new church grew very rapidly. To the point that the septic system of the building they were in could not keep up with the amount of people that were there. A big problem to say the least.

Around this same time a much larger Brandon area church had lost its pastor and was in need of some solid leadership. They got in contact with the folks at The Point and began talking about merging the two churches. This larger church was originally named Calvary Church and is the church that launched Bay Life Church. When the original pastor of Calvary left to become a traveling evangelist, and a new pastor was hired, the church name was changed to Crosstown Community Church. The name comes from the fact that the church property is right next to the Crosstown Expressway. When the two churches merged they adopted the name The Crossing.

The Crossing is, more or less, the parent and child of Bay Life. Weird I know. I should also mention that The Crossing is one of the top twenty-five most growing churches in America.

Sylvia and I have known Greg and Tamara Dumas, the pastor and his wife of The Crossing, for several years now. Since their days at Bay Life. Greg was the singles/20 something pastor and Tamara sang on the praise team with Sylvia. There's good history there. After we left the church in Westchase we decided to check out The Crossing. We were blown away from the moment we drove onto the parking lot. Plus it was great to see old friends that we hadn't seen in a few years. Bay Life sent 50 families to help Greg launch The Point so we lost contact with some folks. After the year we spent driving forty miles to Westchase and not really knowing anyone being greeted with smiles, hand shakes, and hugs was overwhelming. It felt like home.

We did go back to Bay Life a couple of times but it just didn't feel right. The Crossing was it. From the moment Sylvia first heard the band and singers she told me I needed to be playing in that band. I waited almost 2 months before contacting anyone but I finally did audition. Like I said last night was my first rehearsal with them.

We started at 7 pm with just the band. The singers were elsewhere doing a vocal rehearsal. At 8 pm the singers came in and we ran through everything together until about 9:30 pm. The band this coming weekend will consist of two electric guitars, acoustic guitar, bass, keys, drums, and percussion. Now for some cool stuff. Every song is done using a click track. Every band member and every singer is on a wireless in-ear monitor. It's total pro. We worked the whole time we were there with very little down time. It was the polar opposite if the situation I had left a few month earlier. A half an hour, forty-five(if we were lucky)minute rehearsal with a forty-five minute to an hour drive. I now only have to drive 10 minutes.

The best part....... there is no mediocrity! Mediocrity is one of the main reasons we left the church in Westchase. The Crossing is chasing after excellence. My philosophy has always been this. If you are going to do something in the name of God you had better do it to the very best of your ability. Then when you can do that, you try to go beyond and get it even better. God should not be a second thought. Always give your best. Your first fruits if you will. This is what drew us to The Crossing. The desire to give God their best.

Happy Birthday to the Love of My Life

Happy Birthday Sylvia. I love you. I am who I am because of who you are. You are the love of my life and my best friend. I couldn't make it without you.

Here we are, 13 years later, another baby on the way, and I love you more today than I did the day I said I do.

I love you,
Mark.

Happy Birthday Rachel

Today Rachel turns 10. She is now my second pre-teen and the time has flown by. My little dancer... I'm very proud of you and I love you with all of my heart. You are growing into a very beautiful young lady and I can't wait to see what you can accomplish. I love you baby girl.

All my Love,
Daddy

This Is For My Friend Grant (and anyone else who wants to take a listen)

This is a guitar player named Andy Mckee. His stuff reminds me of David playing for King Saul.

The Monthly Pilgimage

We trudged, if doing 80 on I-4 can be considered trudging, over to Lakeland for the annual checkup and the birth center. Everything is still just fine. We took Rachel with us because she was born at the same birth center. She got to see the room where she was born and she got to hear the baby's heart beat. 160 bpm. All is well.

I have to go make some changes on a clients project so I can get it to press.

Ciao.

Very Busy

As of yesterday I had 5 jobs going at the same time. The one I finished and turned over to the client was a lot of time intensive Photoshop work. I'm doing a small ad campaign for a Tampa defense attorney that is a continuation of the work I did for him last year. I'm also doing a complete identity package for a photographer in Kansas. A logo design, web site design (I don't do programming -- way too left brained for me.), business cards, and a postcard mailer. I'll probably do letterhead at some point too. I have to say that the logo I did for this client is, hands down, the coolest logo I have ever created. Usually I will do 15 to 25 or so designs to show a client. For this photographer I only did 4. The 4th one was it! As soon as I made it I knew I had it and the photographer loved it.

The fine folks at Red Kite Studios and Mark Anthony Photography have tapped my creative expertise for a re-design of the Red Kite web site and a logo design for a new non-profit photography business both companies are starting up called In Gods Eyes. And last but not least is the day spa. I'm doing a lot of print work for them. Print work is very different from web stuff. On the web you can make changes at will and see them happen in real time. If there is a typo, just go fix it. Chances are no one will be the wiser. In print however.... once ink hits paper it's too late to be making changes. All you can do is live with it. It's very important to spend a lot of time, and I mean a lot of time going over everything with a fine toothed comb to make sure every word, character, line break, image, bleed, etc. is perfect before the job goes to press.

The blog has been neglected for a week or two now and when things settle a bit I will be posting more regularly. I need to finish reviewing The Myth of a Christian Nation so I can start reading another book I bought entitled The Secret Message of Jesus.

The kids just finished a week of vacation bible school and couple of weeks ago we had some friends from Memphis in town for a few days. Thankfully the head lice problem appears to be over with. Sylvia is doing fine. We make our monthly pilgrimage to the birth center next week. We are still not sure where we are going to land church wise and that is fine with me. It's nice to not be under the pressure of church right now. What I mean by the pressure is I don't have to be there. I'm going because I want to and not just because I have to play guitar. The last few weeks it has been nice to just sit back and soak it in.

That's all I can think of for now,
Ciao.

This Is Hilarious

Book Review: The Myth of a Christian Nation--How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church By Gregory A. Boyd

This is the start of the review I had said earlier was coming. So far it only covers the introduction section of the book.

Introduction: “Like many evangelical pastors in the month before the 2004 election, I felt pressure from a number of right-wing political and religious sources, as well as from some people from my own congregation, to “shepherd my flock” into voting for “the right candidate” and the “right position.” Among other things I was asked to hand out leaflets, to draw attention to various political events, and to have church members sign petitions, make pledges, and so on. Increasingly, some on our church grew irate, because of my refusal (supported by the church board) to have the church participate in these activities.”

This is the first paragraph of the introduction, which is titled - - How this book came to be and why it may irritate some readers. This is the reason why Boyd preached a sermon series entitled “The Cross and the Sword.” By the way, Boyd is the senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota as well as an author. The central thesis of the book is this: He believes a significant portion of American evangelicalism is guilty of political and nationalistic idolatry. In other words, many American evangelicals have allowed their understanding of the Kingdom of God to become distorted with political ideals, agendas, and other issues. It has become about voting for the “Christian” candidate, outlawing gay marriages, outlawing abortion, keeping the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, etc. etc. etc.

Boyd writes of two kingdoms. One is the kingdom of the world. The second is the kingdom of God. He says that evangelicalism has fused the two kingdoms into a preferred kingdom of the world rather than focus on the understanding of God’s kingdom. Which is to say Jesus. Who, never let himself get pulled into the political disputes of his day. The author believes the fusing of the two kingdoms is caused by the myth that America is a Christian nation with the church as its guardian.

Now, for my take on his thesis. It seems that every election, whether it be local, state, or national, I get more and more uncomfortable with the actions and words of the candidates who openly profess to being Christians. I have been feeling, for some time now, that these folks, while sincere in their beliefs, are doing an awful lot of damage to the name and cause of Jesus. I see them alienating and in most cases bullying anyone that doesn’t agree with them. I might add here that they always do this in the name of Jesus. I’ve not found anywhere in the Gospels where Jesus alienated or bullied anyone except for the corrupt religious leaders of his day. In fact it’s the very type of people that modern day politicians treat like outcasts that Jesus embraced, loved, and ministered to. For me, it’s very hard to reconcile the Jesus that I read about in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with the Jesus I see and hear about come election time.

I was hooked on the book after reading just the introduction. I was hooked because, from what Boyd writes in the introduction, I believe he is right.

Midwifery Pilgrimage

Sylvia and I made, what has become, our monthly pilgrimage to Lakeland for our appointment with the birth center. All is well..... we heard the baby's heartbeat again and everything is looking good.

Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day, the kids are out of school, Sylvia is still pregnant and I woke up this morning with a headache. I took some meds, slept for another hour and then I and the family walked a mile. Basically not much going on right now. We are going to have lunch with Sylvia's parents and who knows what the rest of the day will hold. I hope to get some practice time in today and hopefully one of my customers will call me with an approval so I can get paid.

I've been reading, at the suggestion of my friend Grant, a book entitled The Myth of a Christian Nation. I'm about 3/4 of the way through it and it is a great read. The author, a pastor in Minnesota felt the need to preach a series of sermons entitled The Cross and The Sword. Because of the sermon series the pastor lost 1,000 people, roughly 20% of his congregation, because he would not support the Republican Party from the pulpit. Personally, I think that if he got that kind of a reaction then he was probably on the right track. He told his people what they needed to hear and some didn't like it.

What the author, more of less, is saying in the book is that America is not, nor has ever been, a Christian nation because America has never looked like Jesus. And that looks like a person who was willing to die for the very people that crucified him.

I'm not going to give away anymore about the book as I'm not finished reading it yet. I will give a more in depth review in a later post. This is a very good book and will more than likely offend a great majority of evangelicals. Again I think the author is right on track in what he is saying.

Guthrie Govan Video

...And The Winner Is

Jordan Sparks won American Idol!

And she deserves it.

Frank Gambale video

Frank Gambale: Guitar
Bunny Brunel: Bass
Virgil Donoti: Drums
Mitch Foreman: Keys



Frank Gambale sweep picking lesson.

One More Use For Petrolium Jelly

Right now I am exhausted. Mentally, physically, emotionally. I spent the better part of yesterday fighting head lice on my kids. It all started two weeks ago when I discovered nits ( lice eggs ) in Liam’s hair. I then found them in Tyler’s and Rachel’s. It was troubling but doable. A little over a year ago Rachel had lice and so we jumped on the Internet and found some natural, essential oil based remedy. It worked. It worked great. One day later and all the lice were gone. And they didn’t return.

This time is different however. I used the same remedy as last time. I nit picked all three of the kids hair not once but two or three times over the course of a week just to make sure I got them all. I checked their hair randomly over the course of last week and I found not even the first nit. I made the kids put hair gel in their hair and I didn’t let them wash their hair very much either. Lice like clean hair by the way; it’s easier for them to attach to clean hair than to dirty hair. The stigma that how clean or dirty you are relates to lice is totally untrue. So let your kids get dirty… especially their hair. Dirty hair = no lice.

This time it was different also because I found live bugs on both of my boy’s heads. What’s worse I found nits and live bugs in and on their eyelashes. No, not eyebrow’s. Not the bushy hair above their eyes… their eyelashes! I picked 7 live bugs with their little wiggly legs out of Tyler’s lashes and 4 or 5 out of Liam’s. It was excruciating. For the boys because when I would use the tweezers to pick out the bugs I would also pull out hair. It was torture for me because every time I would try to pull out a bug I had to listen to them scream out in pain. And I didn’t always get the bug on the first try. I can’t express how awful it was. It was so bad for the boys that every time I would go in for a bug they would shake in fear making it harder for me and making it worse for everyone.

Once again I went to the Internet and found out that if I put Vaseline in their eyelashes twice a day for eight days it will kill the lice. That’s much better than plucking their lashes out and I don’t have to torture them anymore. Good thing because I couldn’t deal with doing that to them. That’s a big part of why I’m so exhausted. Now I just have a lot of laundry to deal with.

ADD and Other Stuff....... Oh, and American Idol Sucks!

Well American Idol doesn't suck but America does. What in the world is wrong with you people? Why would you vote off Melinda Doolittle? She should be the winner. She deserves it. But nooooooooo............. all of the idiots voted her off. That's right, the same morons that kept Sanjawa, who couldn't sing with Josh Groban's voice, on the show.

OK, rants over. My daughters school thinks she has ADD. They think she needs to be medicated.

Here's why. She had accomplished absolutely nothing this year in school. No, really. She has done nothing. She is in her own world when she is in school. This has been an on going problem. Once, a couple of years ago she had a wedding on her desk where she married her pencils. This is a daily issue. Not marrying her pencils, just not being focused on what she is supposed to be doing. Sylvia and I have been trying for 4 years now to have her held back. We held Tyler back in first grade and it was one of the best things we could have done for him. With Rachel we have been handed one excuse after another as to why she should not be held back.

Now here we are ready to go to the 5th grade and she is not ready. Once again we are being handed more excuses by the school system to not hold here back. They told us to get her tested and to get an official diagnosis for ADD. We took her to our doctor and he took her off of sugar, artificial sweeteners, dairy, and caffeine. He says get rid of this stuff and her focus will come back. He says medication is just a to keep ADD prone kids out of every one's hair so that they don't have to deal with the problem. So we have begun the arduous task of removing these things from her diet. What we have found out so far is that she doesn't get caffeine. The only soda she drinks is Sprite. She doesn't eat a lot of dairy......... she hates milk. She eats cereal without milk. She does eat a lot of cheese though. Oh, and ice cream. But we don't let her or the other 2 eat a lot of this stuff. We try to keep it in check and for the most part do a fairly good job at it. So we are going to try what the doctor said for a while and see what happens.

Sylvia is doing fine. She is over the nausea, morning sickness thing and is now moving into the my clothes don't fit me anymore phase. Thankfully I have a couple of very lucrative jobs going right now. We are also church shopping........... if that's an appropriate way to put it. With gas prices being over $3 a gallon driving the 40 miles to our last church 3 days a week is just way too much. Plus with what went on at Disney a few weeks ago we feel we need to stick close to home and not put too much stress on Sylvia.

So here we are going through a transition period in our lives and actually looking forward to it.

The Smoky Haze That Florida Has Become

I downloaded these images from TBO.com. They show how bad it has been here for the last week or so. The top image is from a NASA satellite. It show an aerial view of the wildfire.

The Great Joe Pass "All The Things You Are"

Background Singers

I'm convinced that the background singers on American Idol are absolutely HORRENDOUS! I think that there were performances this season that the judges were less than pleased with and the voters vote off because the background singers flat out sucked. The background singers caused a lot of contestants to get vote off of the show. The band is absolutely awesome. The background singers........ not so much. I say America should vote them off as well.

What?????

I went out to my van this morning to take the kids to school and saw very small whitish flakes of something falling from the sky. When I got to the van I noticed it was covered in a thin layer of the same stuff. Then I remembered the weather report from last night on the news....... ash. It was falling ash from the wild fire burning in southern Georgia! The weather man said it would be smokey this morning. Plus last night the temperature dropped way below what it has been. It was in the mid 50's. With my ceiling fan going last night I got cold enough to use a blanket. I thought I was still living in Florida. The land where we give spring, fall, and winter amiss and go straight on into summer.

I heard on the radio this morning that the Skyway Bridge is very bad. It's covered in smoke and visibility is not so good. If you've ever been over the Skyway you know how nerve wracking that can be on a clear day. I went over the bridge a couple of times in a 15 foot box truck in high winds and thought I was going to need Prozac to help calm me down. It was bad.

It is supposed to clear up as the winds change direction and blow from more of a southern direction. And at first when I walked outside it smelled very good. Kind of like a camp fire. A really BIG camp fire. But that got old rather fast as my eyes got irritated. Even with the windows up in the van it was still bothersome. Hopefully they can get this fire under control. It's been burning for a few weeks now and doesn't seem to be willing to go away without a fight.

THE Classic Of All Time

My oldest son, Tyler, discovered this video a couple of days ago. He laughed like he was going to pee his pants.

Boom, Boom, Boom........

160 beats per minute. A good strong heart beat. I was there........ I heard it for myself. The new kid is doing just fine. Sylvia is too.

We're Off To See The Wizard

We have our first appointment at Labor Of Love this morning. Labor Of Love is a birthing center in Lakeland, Florida. My daughter was born there in 1995. In fact none of my children were born in a hospital. Tyler was born at the Hollywood Birth Center in Hollywood, Florida, Rachel at Labor of Love and Liam was born at home. The new baby will more than likely be born at home as well. Unless there is some weird and unexpected complication resulting from last weekends stressful little drama...... that is the plan.

Sylvia has been doing fine. No more problems since Saturday night. She took Monday and Tuesday off from work and rested. Yesterday she went back to work. She was tired but all in all felt good. I'll pick her up this morning at 10:15 and head to Lakeland. Pray that everything goes alright and that they don't label her high risk.

The Big Scare That Turned Out Alright

This past Saturday, the 28th of April, my wife and I boarded a chartered bus, one of 6 or 7, and headed off to Walt Disney World as chaperone's for Grad Nite. This is the second year we have done this. Last year went off without a hitch except for the students we busted smoking pot inside of the Magic Kingdom. The students turned out to be from my wife's school. This year things turned out completely different. We ended up spending the entire night in the emergency room.

Here is the story. The convoy of buses arrived at Disney and we were dropped off at one of several gates for entrance to the park. At Grad Nite you don't have to ride the monorail or the paddle boat across the lagoon. You are dropped off at one of several back entrances to the park which is cool because you get to see things that you normally wouldn't see. A small behind the scenes tour if you will. We were dropped off in Adventure Land right next to Splash Mountain.

Disney sets up a chaperon headquarters at the main entrance where chaperone's can get food, drink, rest, play games, etc. etc. etc. when they are not out in the park. This year for the chaperons they were giving 25 to 30 minute guided tours of the underground facilities for free. This is a tour that Disney normally charges $60 per person, provides lunch, and takes about 5 hours to complete. You get a lot of information on the history, and the inner workings of the whole facility. It's very cool. After we did the very condensed underground tour my wife said she needed to use the restroom. We went back to the chaperon HQ and she waited in line for her turn. I was seated outside the restroom waiting. Then all hell broke loose.

Some women rushed out of the restroom and were calling for me..... telling me my wife needed me because she was getting sick. Weird. Whatever it was had come on very fast since she had not said anything prior about felling ill. I was expecting to find her with her head over the toilet yakking up dinner which would not have been good because that would mean at the mere sound of her blowing chunks I would be hanging my head over the toilet with her tossing my own cookies into the toilet. This however, is not what I found. When I got inside I heard her sobbing and crying that she had lost the baby. She was beyond upset........ she was off the farm.
Gone. I of course was terrified but had to take charge of the situation.

I have to say that the Disney employees were great. They cleared the restroom and called EMS. When I told them what we thought was happening they really treated the situation very gently and graciously. EMS arrived and transported us to the emergency room. The hospital was great. They too were very gentle and gracious. They did blood tests, did an OB exam, and took a sonogram. Thankfully everything was fine. The baby is fine and doing well. In fact when they were doing the sonogram the baby was moving around so much it looked like he/she was doing cartwheels and waving at us. It looks like we are going to have a very active kid!

It was a long night to say the least. The situation in the restroom started around 10:30 pm and we left the hospital at 5:30 am the next morning. After they loaded us into the ambulance at the park I called my sister-in-law to tell her what was going on and she and her husband drove the hour or so to Orlando 1. because they care and 2. we didn't have any other way of getting home since we rode over on the bus. Oh, what a night........ Sylvia is taking a couple of days off and resting which is what the doctor said is all that can really be done right now. She feels good and is doing well. Much better than when I went into the restroom at Disney. The good thing was that she immediately calmed down as soon as the sonogram tech told her she was still pregnant and everything looked good. Then she was just exhausted from the emotional trauma of the whole evening.

Thank you to everyone who helped out that night. Thanks to the Disney employees who were so gracious and kind. Thank you to the stranger who prayed over us in the restroom when Sylvia was off the farm upset. Thanks to the EMS guys. Thanks to the dr.'s, nurses, and technicians at the hospital and thank you Bryon and Kera for being there and being a calm in a storm and driving us home. They got home just in time to get their kids up and head off to church. Thank you God for protecting Sylvia and the baby.

Yard Art

No it's not mine. It's my neighbor around the corner and down the street. Now I've seen toilets used as planters before but this is the first time I have seen the addition of the toilet paper stand. For me, this is the best and most creative part. It completes the piece. I also like the fact that these folks just did it. They just put it out there for all the world to see.

Thankfully I do not live in a deed restricted, walled in, security gated, nazi prison compound type neighborhood where such displays of creativity are discouraged by the use of nasty letters, leans, arbitration, etc. etc. etc. I live in the free world. A world where if I wanted to paint my house neon pink with lime green trim I can. Don't worry I'm not going to paint my house neon pink with lime green trim! I like the fact that I live in a neighborhood without the lame home owners association nazi's. Not in a neighborhood where property values are more important than getting to know your neighbors. A neighborhood where a housewife puts up a sign in her yard that says support the troops because her husband is deployed in Iraq then gets taken to court because she is in violation of the nazi neghborhood rules.

This blog post is in support of free Americans and their right to have weird yard art. Even if it is a toilet. God bless America!

Frank Gambale: A Little Something

This is my favorite FG tune.

Twisted

One of my many twisted friends sent me this video.

Liam's Haircut

You can go to my Flickr page and see before photos.

Life In The Fast Lane

Not much going on here these days. The kids are in school and winding down the year with science fair projects and end of the year musical and juggling performances. Tyler has become quite the unicyclist and Rachel is doing very well her first year in the juggling class. Liam finally got his hair cut off and is donating it to Locks of Love. He looks so different with his short haircut. It took a few days to get used to seeing him with short hair. I'll post some pictures of him so everyone can see.

My old friend Darin had to re-launch his blog due to the size it has become. Apparently is was larger than Blogger could handle. He has some very cool new posts on the new site. You can check that out at Interactive Sermon.

An update on my friend Kellie. She is doing better since her car accident. She is home and the long road to recovery is under way. I got this email from her a couple of days ago.

Mark,

I am doing much better! I spent the first week after the crash in the hospital (Monday to Saturday). I made it home and developed an infection. Never had that before, thought I was going to die. I had severe fevers 103 and up for one week. Brian's stress level was at it's peak. I made two trips back to the ER. Finally, on the Saturday following my return home, the fever broke. It took me a couple of days to build my strength back up but it is getting better everyday. I saw the Dr on Thursday of this past week. He x ray ed everything again and said all is well. He expects that in 3 weeks I should be able to begin bearing weight on my leg. That will be 5 weeks post surgery. He originally told me that it would be 6-8 weeks. So things are healing well. I will be walking with a walker then with a cane. My physical therapist is about to kill me but says I will be ready to walk in three weeks. I am looking forward to things getting back to normal.

Thanks for checking on me!
Kellie


It sucks how something so destructive can happen so fast--a matter of seconds--yet take 5 times as much time or longer to recover from. There's a life lesson for you...... the choices we make in life have a very long and lingering effect on our lives. Kellie didn't choose for this to happen I know but just think about choices you've made in your own life that have not turned out the way you had hoped they would. Do they still affect you today? Are you reaping the benefit or are you paying the piper?


Sylvia is doing pretty good. She gets tired very easily. The B and prenatal vitamins are helping and she is not as nauseous as she was. Today she is officially 12 weeks along. The kids are still very excited and Sylvia and I are starting to catch up to them. It is still a bit of a shock though.

I guess that's about it for now. I will very shortly post some pictures of Liam's new haircut.