Seriously, it should not be hard to embed a video. I don’t know why I’m having trouble embedding this video:

I dont think these will work, but who knows

#1

http://balloonpastor.smugmug.com/Movies/McBIC-Videos/6923548_BpB27#698338517_uL2V8

#2
http://balloonpastor.smugmug.com/Movies/McBIC-Videos/Cooperation/698338517_uL2V8-Ti.jpg

#3
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#4
<a href=“http://balloonpastor.smugmug.com/Movies/McBIC-Videos/6923548_BpB27/1/#698338517_uL2V8-A-LBâ€><img src=“http://balloonpastor.smugmug.com/Movies/McBIC-Videos/Cooperation/698338517_uL2V8-M.jpgâ€></a>

youtube try

<object width=“425†height=“344â€><param name=“movie†value=“http://www.youtube.com/v/UtGNAK-C6oY&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0â€></param><param name=“allowFullScreen†value=“trueâ€></param><param name=“allowscriptaccess†value=“alwaysâ€></param><embed src=“http://www.youtube.com/v/UtGNAK-C6oY&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0†type=“application/x-shockwave-flash†allowscriptaccess=“always†allowfullscreen=“true†width=“425†height=“344â€></embed></object>

During the month of November, we will be focussing on Cooperation.

There are many ways we can also teach this virtue at home. Just think of all the times you work with each other at home. It’s almost natural to help each other out and work together. Here is a video that I decided to shoot earlier today. I am so blessed because my boys are always helping me out!

Since I am still checking out different software, the first video was uploaded directly to MacJournal and the second one is an embedded link. I want to check which I like better.

MACJOURNAL

EMBEDDED

<object width=“425†height=“240†><param name=“movie†value=“http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2009090604.swf†/><param name=“allowFullScreen†value=“true†/><param name=“flashVars†value=“s=ZT0xJmk9Njk4MzM4NTE3Jms9dUwyVjgmYT02OTIzNTQ4X0JwQjI3JnU9YmFsbG9vbnBhc3Rvcg==“ /><embed src=“http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2009090604.swf†flashVars=“s=ZT0xJmk9Njk4MzM4NTE3Jms9dUwyVjgmYT02OTIzNTQ4X0JwQjI3JnU9YmFsbG9vbnBhc3Rvcg==“ width=“425†height=“240†type=“application/x-shockwave-flash†allowFullScreen=“trueâ€></embed></object>

I’m sick … yick!!!

Tonight was the annual Trick or Treat night here in Mechanicsburg. It is a unique time on our block. Our block is pretty dark and doesn’t have many street light, plus, there are not many houses that participate – so that means that it’s even darker since those houses don’t have their lights on.

But for those of us who do hand out candy, we are mostly on our porches or on the sidewalk. It’s a similar feeling to when it snows and we are all out shoveling out our vehicles.

While I don’t particularly like Halloween (it’s dark and doesn’t exactly lift up Christ Jesus), I do participate in Trick or Treat. I remember growing up and walking by houses where you could see people “hiding out” in their basements. I use to think of them as weird and avoid their houses. Avoid them that night and actually throughout the year. I don’t want any kids thinking the same about our house. Quite the opposite in fact. I want our house to shine brightly in our neighborhood and to be known as a house where we love kids and it’s a safe place.

In our 15+ years of marriage, Beth and I have done many different things on trick or treat night. We have hidden, we have found something else to do that evening, and more recently, we have participated. Everyone needs to make their own decisions about tonight, and this has been ours. We see it more of a community building night.

So ….

We hand out the BIG candy bars!!! We don’t want to just blend in, we want people to remember us as people who love kids, who have a good time, and who go the extra mile to make people smile.

Tonight, we handed out 168 Full-size candy bars. I just want to report that the top three bars to go (in order) were …
1. Hershey Bar
2. Reese’s
3. Nestle Bar

The last to go were the Baby Ruth’s, followed by snickers, and butterfinger. I was most surprised that the snickers bars lasted as long as they did.

We have given out the full size bars for the past number of years. We even had two families that said they chose to come to our house early in the evening because of us giving out the bars in years past.

It’s fun making people smile!

I’m dragging my feet on a project – writing the monthly newsletter. It should have been done last week, it REALLY should have been done by Tuesday, and it really, really needs to be done by today. I’m just not in the mood to do it. But I need to do it. I need to get it done!!!

I will get it done today – right after I do these 47 other things that need done. It doesn’t matter that they don’t need done for another few weeks … they are just more interesting to me at the moment than writing my newsletter articles.

Have you ever felt like this?

Communication – this is something I definitely need to work on!

I am realizing more and more that I need to communicate and over-communicate. I haven’t been doing a real good job of this lately.

I love technology. I wonder if I can use that to help me communicate.

Videos? Audio? hmmmm……..

Decisions, decisions, decisions

Hopefully more will be coming later!!

This morning I had breakfast with my oldest son. And not just any breakfast, but we went to Cracker Barrel!!

Last night I decided to let my wife and youngest son (who was home sick) sleep in as they were both tired last night.

Well, I woke John up and he got up and got ready pretty fast. It’s always amazing how fast the kids can be when they know they are going out to eat. He even beat me downstairs and packed his own lunch!

Anyway, we headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. And it was great. We purposely (on my end at least) left the house early so we would have plenty of time and wouldn’t feel rushed.

We ate, we talked, we laughed. I was able to really dig in and talk to him about who he is as a person – what he likes and what he doesn’t like. I asked questions like what would he like to do different. Play more sports? Buy more video games? What do I do that embarrasses him? What opportunities does he feel he has?

It was a great time and we had great discussions. He’s an awesome kid!!

Can you believe that it’s only 2 months till Christmas! WOW! Hard to believe.

Sunday’s after church at our house are low-key and laid back. We generally don’t go anywhere or do anything special. The boys will watch a video, play a game, twist balloons or some other random event. Beth and I generally rest and/or take a nap.

We also usually watch a video as we eat dinner int he living room in the evening. Tonight, the boys picked Miracle On 34th Street. (1947 colorized version).

I tried to get them to pick the original Black & White version, but it was a nog go.

It’s still tough to believe that Christmas is only 2 months away!!

Today was another balloon day….. kind of.

My morning was filled with eating lots of bacon, running around getting supplies ready for KidStuf tomorrow & more running around.

This afternoon I started on the balloons. Since I wasn’t super interested in doing this chore, I also had the TV on and watched my fair share of a cable show – but I forget it’s name. It was something like parking police or something. It was a “reality based” tv show on the officers who give parking tickets, work in impound lots, etc… Pretty interesting – kind of. Not something I’ll record or check when it’s on, but it helped passed the time.

My whole balloon sorting today was sorting all of the non-twisty balloons. I sorted & consolidated my rounds, my imprints & my crazy shapes. Let me just say that I have a TON of balloons! I don’t know how I accumulated so many. Some, I even forgot I had. Others, i need to come up with a way to make something with them. and still others are kept in case I have to do a quick decorative column or arch.

I’m happy to say that I’m about 85% done sorting my balloons. I hope to finish in the next few days!