For the first time since she has worked at OfficeMax, Stephanie has called in sick. Her head hurts and she keeps coughing. It could be a cold. I had to talk her into it. She was dressed and ready to go to work. It's nothing serious. She should be fine. I think she needed time to rest more than anything.

The job interview went well. I gave them a few more references, so we'll see. Not sure when I'll hear back.

TJ

We had a good time in Iowa. This was the first time in our 6 years of marriage we've spent our anniversary at someone's house. That's okay though. We had a lot of fun.

Just a note for whoever reads this. On Thursday morning at 11 I have a second interview for a job position at Sage Glass in Faribault. It's a M-F, 8 hour, day position. So that would be great! So you can pray for that.

TJ

Headed to Iowa....Again

So we're going down to Iowa again today. We are going to Adam and Jamie's for the weekend. Stephanie just found out at the beginning of the week that she doesn't have to work Memorial Day. She thought she would have to. So we're going to Iowa. I'm not really sure why OfficeMax is open on Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day. Who goes to an office store on the 4th of July?

Hey, I've got a new website, well it's really a Four His Glory website, but the rest of them don't know about it. You can download MP3's of all the songs from our award winning cd. Now that we are running out of cds, it's nice to be able to download all the songs....for free! Here's the website:

http://ilike.com/artist/Four+His+Glory

TJ

Okay, so I was wrong. David Cook won American Idol...by 12 million votes. The finale was pretty good. There weren't any really weird duets. ZZ Top sang with David Cook. But that wasn't really strange since David's a rocker. I liked the video of Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. as the Pips singing backup for Gladys Knight. My favorite performance was Carly Smithson and Michael Johns.
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In other news, if you haven't heard yet, singer Steven Curtis Chapman's youngest daughter was killed when a SUV driven by her brother struck and killed her in their driveway. Please be in prayer for them. For more info.... FoxNews.com, StevenCurtisChapman.com, PeopleMagazine.com

TJ

American Idol Finale

So the final American Idol is tonight. I guess I kinda lost interest when Carly Smithson was kicked off. But to be honest, this is probably a very good final 2. I'm watching last nights show right now. It's pretty good. I hoping for some good special guests for tonight's finale. I remember a couple years ago on the American Idol finale when Katherine McPhee sang with Meatloaf. Now that was weird! But I always love to see the collaborations. I'm thinking David Cook might sing with the Gaither Vocal Band since their styles are so similar. Of course, why not, if Katherine McPhee can sing with Meatloaf. My pick for the winner..... David Archeleutlskta. As you can see I have no idea how to spell his name and I don't feel like figuring it out right now. Ruben Studdard is singing now. I miss him. He was good. I miss Carrie on Idol. She was good. Okay, I'm starting to ramble. Have a good day.

TJ

Weekend Review

Howdy to all of you. We had a good weekend in the Cities. We stayed at the Sofitel Hotel in Edina. It was very nice. The king size bed was sooo comfortable. I turned the air down to 60 degrees and we slept under the nice heavy down blanket. It was great. On Saturday we went to downtown Minneapolis. We went the the Sculpture Gardens and just hung out. We had a good time. Here's a photo album from the "mini-trip".


TJ

Cities

Tonight we are going up to the Twin Cities and spending the night at a hotel with Tim and Nicole. It should be fun. We really don't have much planned. I think we'll just kinda hang out. It should be a good weekend to get outside. It's so nice outside. Maybe we'll ride our bikes to the Cities.

TJ

Short Funnies

There was a couple funny things that happened yesterday. First, Stephanie and I were sitting outside in the driveway. Stephanie was reading a book and I was cold and getting bored. Anyway, WAY across the street, over in the new housing development the neighbor lady and her kids were over there. She was talking to another girl that lives somewhere around here. Not sure how, but we could hear her talking. I guess the sound bounced off the houses just right. She was asking the girl where she lived and stuff. The neighbor said she doesn't know very many people around here. Then she said, "My neighbors don't even talk to me." That was pretty funny. I know she thought we couldn't hear her. But she was wrong. It's not like we avoid her. We've talked to her. What are we supposed to do, go knock on her door and ask if she wants to talk? Maybe we should.

At church last night I kept hearing this noise during prayer meeting. It sounded like somebody was grunting or groaning or moaning. Something like that. I couldn't figure out what it was. Then a few rows in front of us I saw a lady nudge her husband with her elbow. He was snoring. HA!

TJ

Dottie Rambo

Gospel Legend Dottie Rambo Killed in Tour Bus Accident

The Missouri Highway Patrol is continuing to investigate a Sunday morning (May 11) tour bus accident that claimed the life of gospel music legend Joyce "Dottie" Rambo, 74, of Nashville. Six other people in the bus, including her manager, were injured when the 1997 Prevost bus crashed into a guard rail and an embankment around 2:20 a.m. on Interstate 44 near Mount Vernon, Mo. At the time of the accident, the singer-songwriter was traveling to a Mother's Day performance at a church in North Richland Hills, Texas. Rambo began her gospel music career at age 12 and eventually wrote more than 2,500 songs and won a Grammy in 1968 for her album, The Soul of Me. Inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007, she was inducted twice into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame -- as a solo artist in 1982 and with former husband Buck Rambo and their daughter, singer-songwriter Reba Rambo, as the Rambos singing group in 2001. Her new album, Sheltered, is scheduled to be released this summer. Her songs have been recorded by Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Barbara Mandrell and many others. She and Parton recorded a duet for the title track of Rambo's 2003 album, Stand by the River.

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Dottie is famous for such songs as: Behold The Lamb, For What Earthly Reason, He Ain't Never Done Me Nothing But Good, He Looked Beyond My Fault And Saw My Need, I Call Him Lord, I Go To The Rock, I Will Glory In The Cross, If That Isn't Love, I've Never Been This Homesick Before, We Shall Behold Him, Too Much To Gain To Lose, Sheltered In The Arms Of God, and many, many more.

TJ

Congrats!!

Congrats to Brian and Lois Niehoff on the birth of their baby boy, Liam Thomas on Thursday, May 8th. He weighed 54 pounds and is 97 inches long. Maybe everyone should swing by South Africa to see the baby this week.


TJ

Sugarland

So last night Stephanie and I went to see Country music group, Sugarland, in Mankato. We had a good time. This was Stephanie's first "secular" concert so she didn't really know what to expect. She had a good time though. It was at the Alltel Arena, which is a small arena compared to the Target Center in Minneapolis or Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Our seats were in the upper balcony on the side. The seats were actually pretty good cause the arena isn't really that big. And we're glad we had seats up there cause no one ever sat down on the floor. It was a little crazy. This was my second Country concert. My first was Shania Twain many years ago cause I had won tickets on the radio. This was a lot better. Some guy named Pat Green opened for Sugarland. Blahh. He was boring. After he sang for an hour there was a half hour intermission. Finally, around 9:00pm Sugarland came out. The stage setup was great. There was a really cool half circle behind the stage that showed videos. At intermission an usher came over to our section and told us they wanted us to be part of the encore. It was something they had never done before. She said when they start singing "Stay" we were supposed to go down below and they would tell us what to do. Stephanie and I liked our seats, so we stayed. Everyone else went down. It was great. Nobody was around. Well, they were having all the upper balcony people come down to the floor. They filled it up. Then the best part of the show happened at the encore. They were behind a curtain and the curtain went up and they were each inside these big inflatable balls. They rolled right out on everybody. It was pretty cool. I have been to some loud concerts but this one takes the cake. It was LOUD! I had a terrible headache afterwards. If I ever hear anyone complain that Gaither concerts are loud again, I'm going to laugh. They are nothing compared to this concert. Here's some pictures.

TJ

Car - Pt. II

All right, so after I woke up yesterday afternoon I called Stephanie to see what the deal was with the car. The car repair place wanted to charge us $1800. That's not really worth it with our vehicle. Well, after Stephanie talked with someone at work, they found out through someone else that there is a recall on the coil spring. So for the third time we are getting it towed. This time to the Ford dealership in town to get it fixed for free!

TJ

Bike

I just went on my first bike ride of the year. I rode to downtown Owatonna so I could mail a utilities bill. There's an upside to not having a vehicle at home. Exercise. A nice 40 min ride. And it's beautiful outside. Not sure what we're going to do with the vehicle yet. It's going to cost a lot to fix it. So we might get rid of it. Not sure yet.

TJ

Car

So right now I'm waiting for the tow truck to come. Yep. That's right. I got in the car last night to go to work. When I sat down I heard like a metal on metal snap by the front driver's side tire. I told Stephanie there's no way I'm bringing it to work. I don't know what the problem is and I didn't want the wheel to fall off on me or something. This morning when I got home I decided to try and back it out of the garage so it would be easier to tow. Well, I started going back and BOOM, the tire blew. I don't think that's how Stephanie wanted to wake up this morning. This this large metal thing impaled in the tire. I called AAA and now I'm just waiting for the tow truck. I'm not sure how they are going to tow it with that thing impaled in a flat tire while the car is in the garage. They're here now, I'll be back.

*20 MIN LATER*
He's still here

*20 MIN LATER*
Finally. Wow. That was a lot of fun. He had to hook up these wheels to both front tires which took forever. Then getting it out of the garage was a treat cause he had to clear the sides of the garage with these extra sets of wheels on the tires.
He said it was the coil spring. I'm guessing they're aren't cheap. We'll find out tomorrow I guess.

TJ

So as I am writing this I have no idea what I'm going to say. I'm just saying stuff as it pops in my head. I have no idea what to blog about. It's a beautiful day outside. Right now it's sunny and 70. I'm so excited that I get to go to work this evening so I can enjoy the weather within the walls of a big building. Awesome. On Saturday we spent all day in Blue Earth, MN. We were there for an adoption meeting from 9-5. Our butts were a little sore afterwards. Blue Earth is home to the largest Jolly Green Giant. wow. We would have gotten our picture taken next to it but we didn't have our camera. We need to start carrying that with us. Blue Earth is also the birthplace of the ice cream sandwich. wow. Have a good day.

TJ

So tonight Stephanie and I are going out to eat with our Pastor and his wife. We're discussing the annual church corn feed they have every summer. Stephanie and I are in charge of it this year. The place we are going to eat.....El Taquila. Hmmm.

TJ

Wood Paneling

Stephanie and I went to Arby's for supper last night. When we pulled in the parking lot I stopped and said, "Look at this." There was two station wagons with that ugly fake wood paneling on the sides. One was an older one that kinda reminded me of the Niehoff's station wagon when I was growing up. I used to love that thing. The cloth ceiling was coming down so it was all neatly stapled up. I always loved the backseat. The one that faces the back. Good times. Anyway, back to my story. The other station wagon was a newer one. Not sure who buys station wagons anymore. So we went in and ate. As we were leaving I said to Stephanie, "Do you have the camera?" Cause there was not one or two, but now three vehicles in the Arby's parking lot with that ugly wood paneling on the side. Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera. The other vehicle was an ugly old minivan. The only thing I can think is that there is a Wood Paneling Convention going on in town.

TJ