Even though my Panthers didn't come out on top in the Battle of the Expressway last night, I was extremely proud of how well Bradley Ross played and gave his all for his team. This video can be accessed from his website at http://www.brad-ross.com/brad-ross-sacks-pco-qb-during-battle-of-the-expressway or you can view the video right here via youtube.

This is the first movie I ever made with iMovie so please don't judge me! In this movie I have compiled all the video and still photos we took at Miles Holladay's Army Basic Combat Training Graduation on August 19, 2010 at Fort Leonard Wood.

The slow motion clip in the middle was taken when Miles was marching in formation from the graduation hall to Dragoon Park--he was not supposed to divert his gaze or smile but he did both when he saw Lorelei Decker.

I used Metallica's "...And Justice For All" as the background soundtrack because it is Miles' favorite.  In some places it was a bit eerie how perfectly the music lined up with the images in the video.  (Notice the music during the display of the lovely woman with the bleached blond mullet--she is in the foreground of the shot where I was trying to picture Hannah, Gretchen and Lorelei standing against the wall for the ceremony.)

There were 266 Soldiers who graduated.  They were divided amongst four platoons.  Miles' platoon was the 2nd platoon.  Miles will begin AIT at Fort Leonard Wood next week.  His MOS is 88M (Transportation.)  He and Dustin joined the Army on the same day as battle buddies and had hoped to go through all of this together but Dustin's injury caused a delay for him.  Dustin is grateful for Miles who led the way through Basic Combat Training and shared invaluable advice with him.

Dustin and Miles will overlap for about 1.5 weeks at Fort Leonard Wood during their AIT.  Then, once both have returned to Oklahoma they will serve monthly Army National Guard Duty together.

The video was loaded to YouTube in two formats: HD and mobile.  Here's the HD link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-GodHgKgIQ. 

Here is the mobile version link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9E3q8oUot0

Here is the mobile version embedded:

Here is the HD version embedded:

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Family and Friends,

Attached is the week 4 newsletter. For those who thought they missed last week, there was no week 3 newsletter, due to me being on paternity leave. Therefore, this one includes week 3 and 4.

Sincerely,
CPT Brett Ketchum
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Dear Family Members and Friends,

Weeks three and four have come to a close and the Soldiers of Charlie Battery have completed their first phase in Basic Training. Red phase has come to an end and the Soldier move into White phase where they are extended a few more privileges. One of the changes is that the Drill Sergeants now implement student leadership. Soldiers are given the opportunity to develop their leadership skills by being placed in positions over their peers, which proves to be one of the more difficult leadership situation.
Most of the last two weeks have been spent in more in depth training on their individual rifles. After adjusting the sights to make sure they were aligned properly, the battery conducted ranges to enhance their shooting skills. The learned how to engage targets at different ranges, how to acquire a pop-up target and engage quickly, and how to transition from one target to the next when multiple targets appear.

With their skills acquired the Soldiers then had the opportunity to qualify with their rifle. The qualification range is a 300 meter long range with targets that pop-up between 50-300 meters. Soldiers must actively scan their lanes in order to acquire their targets, take proper aim, and accurately place a round into the target before it falls back behind it’s berm. In order to qualify Soldiers had to hit a minimum or 23 out of the 40 targets. For those who hit 30 or more they were given the honor of being Sharpshooters. For the very few who hit 36 or more they could proudly call themselves Experts with the M16/M4 rifle.

Along with shooting their rifles, the Soldiers were trained on how to use a rifle if the enemy got close enough to engage in hand to hand combat. After the basic moves were taught, the Soldiers were allowed to harness the true warrior spirit in bouts against one another using pugil sticks instead of actual rifles.

Following rifle marksmanship, the Battery conducted the first obstacle course during Basic Training. The Combat Conditioning Course is designed to allow the Soldiers to test the limits of their physical ability as they negotiate the 17 obstacles on the course. The obstacles include climbing ropes, a horizontal latter, climbing over walls, rope bridges, low crawls, and gate runs. The platoons were timed on the course and the fastest platoon time was awarded the CCC streamer.

The weeks ended with a brief introduction into Advanced Rifle Marksmanship, which will be the main focus next week. Now that the basics have been taught, the Soldier will truly learn what the M16/M4 rifle can do.

Sincerely,

Brett Ketchum
CPT, FA
Commanding

Download the PowerPoint for these weeks

Since I started posting these newsletters from Fort Sill, I will continue to post them each week for those of you who want to follow along and be praying for Dustin according to his current challenges.

In true "Unclassified" Army fashion I am unable to detect in any of these photos (in the attached powerpoint) if any of these soldiers is actually my Soldier Dustin Decker.

Here is what Captain Ketchum wrote:

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Family and Friends,

Greetings from Charlie Battery. The Soldiers have now completed their second week of training. This week we were able to get outside and conduct more realistic training. The schedule will really pick up from here on out, so you can expect the Soldiers to remain busy. Thank you for the support you have been giving them through this time. Attached is the Week 2 Newsletter.

Sincerely,
CPT Brett Ketchum

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Just got an email from CPT Brett Ketchum at Fort Sill.  This document was attached.  I guess the Army likes PowerPoint.  Click on the link above this picture to download it.

On Monday July 12 I released my baby boy into Uncle Sam's care.  He's one step closer to fulfilling what he believes is God's calling on his life to serve his country and fellow soldiers on the front lines in Afghanistan. 

Driving up to the gate at RTI is when it really began to hit me.  (Dustin was in driving his girlfriend's car in front of me.)

We were yet unaware of the change in his orders.  We thought he'd be shipping out to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri but instead he received orders to report to Fort Sill in Oklahoma.  (This is actually good news to us since it increases the likelihood we might be able to see him during brief visitation hours after he gets out of "Red Phase.")  He'll complete his AIT at Fort Leonard Wood and will hopefully get to see his best friend Miles Holladay some time during that overlap.
 
None of us was crying until Samantha lost it (and so did we as we watched Dustin tenderly console her.)  Every one of us had tears in our eyes--even Dustin.  (The last time I remember seeing Dustin with tears in his eyes was when I mercilessly beat him at Monopoly when he was only five years old.)

Dustin was able to pack every personal possession he could carry into this single back pack from which he would live over the next four months.

Everyone asks me if I'm "okay" with all of this (as his mother.)  I have to be.  God loaned this precious baby boy into our care for a while.  All along his father and I have prayed that we would be used by Him to prepare this young man for service in His Kingdom.  We trust God who holds our son in His loving hands--the very God in whom Dustin has placed his own trust.  We claim Psalm 91 for Dustin:

Psalm 91

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

3 Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.

4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

8 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

9 If you make the Most High your dwelling— even the Lord, who is my refuge—

10 then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.

11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;

12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

I've always been a proponent of a website's utilizing breadcrumbs for clear navigation.  Drop down and Fly-out menus drive me crazy and frustrate me often as tests of manual dexterity (which I frequently fail.)  So when Site Reference recently cited that the use of breadcrumbs can actually help in SEO efforts, I was excited to read the article.   Here it is for your reference.

Here is the link to Scott's follow up article: http://blog.newsok.com/highschoolsports/2010/06/10/catching-up-with-pc-norths-dustin-decker/

I've always told my clients to take full advantage of the opportunity to provide a description with each page of their website within our CMS.  Usually I show them that this exact description is what Google will display as the middle two lines of a result on their search engine results page (SERP.)   For example, if one searches for "Content Management System" in Google one gets a SERP like this.

The third organic result listed for this search (under the wikipedia results) is LightCMS (which is a product of my company.)  The listing looks like this:

The middle two lines here are pulled from the description (which you can view if you select to view the page source.)

In this image I just did a partial screen capture.  The full description included all of this: 

meta name="description" content="LightCMS is a web based content management system for designers and ad agencies. 100% branded web 2.0 content management system. content management systems are also known as cms."

The fourth listing on the SERP was for Drupal.  It looked like this:

Those middle two lines don't communicate a complete thought to the potential visitor.  In viewing the source code for that page it is evident that there is no meta description to give Google a clue as to what text to display.  So Google just did it's best job in selecting text to display.

Okay, so that's how it works in Google.  How does facebook use the metatag description of a page when someone posts a link to their profile?

When there is no description metatag to reference on the hyperlinked page it appears facebook just displays the first paragraph text it runs across on that link.  But, if the hyperlinked page contains a description metatag then it appears that facebook will display that.  For example, I posted this link:

http://www.elementfusion.com/2010-giveaway-one-finalists

When I first posted this link to facebook the page did not have a description metatag.  So facebook just grabbed our "Complete the simple form to the right..." text and displayed it next to the only image they could find on the page. 

But that was certainly not a good description of what someone would find if they followed the link.  So, I added a description metatag to the page (because Element Fusion is kind enough to trust me with an administrator role in the CMS.) 

Then I deleted my previous post on facebook and posted the exact same link again.  This time the description text is what facebook displayed:

So, there you have it.  The moral of the story is to be sure to add a description metatag to any page you intend to promote on the web, especially if you plan to link to that page from facebook.

This article ran in the Oklahoman on October 9, 2009.  Here is a link: http://newsok.com/friday-night-lights-when-duty-calls-pc-norths-dustin-decker-ready-to-serve/article/3407449

Dustin plays football for the Putnam City North Panthers. He is starting left tackle. One of his dreams was to be elected as a captain of the team his senior year. The saturday these elections were held was a Guard drill weekend and he had to miss that practice. He may not have been elected even if he'd been there, but he was definitely not elected to the captain leadership role. He was disappointed but just considered it a small sacrifice to make for service to his country.

Here is Dustin's Twitter post about that: http://twitter.com/DustinDecker/status/4021350523

The photo was taken by Richard T. Clifton. (http://rtcdigitalimages.com/) and is posted on Richard's Facebook page here in full color.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=644665&id=1468927857&ref=nf

Richard T. Clifton (http://rtcdigitalimages.com/) took this photo.  Here's a link to the color photo on his facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=644666&id=1468927857&ref=nf#/photo.php?pid=644665&id=1468927857&ref=nf

Jenni Carlson wrote a story about Dustin that ran in the Sports section of the Oklahoman on October 9, 2009.  Here's the link: http://newsok.com/friday-night-lights-when-duty-calls-pc-norths-dustin-decker-ready-to-serve/article/3407449

      I would tune in and listen intently for that silver Tundra to pull into the garage and the strong framed man maneuver around his Harley on his way in. The creaks of the 1930's house got closer and closer until finally, my grandpa, beer belly and all, was home. I could never help but laugh seeing him with his full gray beard, looking like a mountain man, knowing he was a good looking boy in his prime. But that was years ago. The years when it wasn't so bad to have a stash of jack in the cabinet and a little vodka tucked away in the freezer, and they were long gone.

      I'll forever remember the little things about him. How he always sat in the same place at the little round dinner table. How he wanted just one slice of lime in his coke. How he breathed through his nose when he contemplated something. How we shared a love for Cheetos. I'll forever remember the rides he gave us on the back of his Kawasaki, so proud of his little grandchildren. My grandpa was the most brilliant man I knew. He knew things that others couldn't understand in a lifetime; little secrets between him and God. And the one thing I'll never understand is how someone so smart could do something so selfishly stupid.

      I remember the day like I'm still living it. It was a Sunday. That weekend my church had held a retreat and my faith was stronger than ever. Rachel, Nathan (my youth pastor) and I sang an amazing trio that morning, and after church I was innocently content. I remember looking for my parents, as someone grabbed my hand and said “Lorelei, I need you to come with me.” in a voice like a doctor, who knew something the patient didn't. Seconds later I found myself amongst a crowd of people, throwing me glances of pity. They knew. I saw my mom. She was crying, relying simply on the wall to hold her up. I thought to myself “God, no. Don't do this.” as she told me “Ponka killed himself..”

      I never knew. I never knew that my beloved grandpa wasn't who everyone let me think he was. I never knew that the joke was on me. Of course the bottles in the back of the fridge only really stayed in the back when I was there. How could I have been so naive?

      That moment, the moment by the wall, was mine. At that moment I felt like the world was personally attacking me, but I wasn't going to let that take me down. I was stronger than that. That was the moment when my faith became my own. Just me and God. That day was the day that I decided that no matter what anyone tells me, no matter what makes up my genes, that won't define me. So what, it runs in my genes to be an alcoholic, so does depression, bi-polar disorder, cancer and heart attacks, but that doesn't stop me. My God is bigger. My God is stronger, and I'm along for the ride.

I called ATT but the call dropped after I went through the million prompts entering my phone number, last 4 of my social, etc..

So, I called from a land line.  (Thank goodness I still have one.)  The ATT rep said it was a Device Problem and I should call Apple.

I called the Apple Store at Penn Square to make an appt but they were "booked solid" for four days and could not make an appt.  They suggested I walk in and wait on "stand by."  Yeah, I'm going to do that. 

I did a full system restore on my phone.  I re-seated the SIM card.  I turned the phone off for 30 seconds and then back on.  No luck.

I continued to tolerate the problem and relied on text and email instead of the phone as much as possible.

This morning I made a phone call to a VERY high profile person and the phone dropped the call (as always.)  I was so embarrassed but at least it sprang me into action.

I called the Penn Square Apple store  (405) 767-9393 and spoke with Lauren who said all of their staff has been having the same problem.  It is only here in Oklahoma.  She gave me the number to the ATT Tier 2 support 1-888-892-9760 option 1 and told me to call them.  She warned me that not all of the ATT support techs are aware of the issue and that I should insist they pay attention.

I called ATT and spoke with Jeannie Haney who was very nice and admitted that she had been telling people with this problem that it was a device problem for quite a while.  She said only yesterday did she become aware that it was an ATT problem and that the problem is actually only in OKC.

She called my iPhone and while we were speaking I ceased to be able to hear her.

Finally I have a valid support ticket.  She texted me to tell me that my case has been sent to Engineers.

If you are having the same problem please call ATT and don't let them tell you it is a device problem.

We have to get this fixed.

And I WILL get a refund.  If not, I will get out of my contract with ATT and jailbreak these phones to a new network.

I have a client who is trying to understand how to offer video from their website.  I have recommended they offer video through a streaming service that will convert their video to Flash and make it available on the web so they can embed it on their website.

Here is the video as it has been uploaded to YouTube:  (It was 43.5MB on my computer before I uploaded it to YouTube.)

Here is the video as it has been uploaded to Blip.tv:  (I don't know why it is showing "sideways" when I loaded it directly to Blip in the same manner as I loaded it to YouTube and it was vertical on my computer.  Plus, it took ten times as long to load to Blip than it took to load to YouTube.)

And here is a video that has been attached to this post as a quicktime file:  (Since this CMS allows a maximum file size of 20MB to be loaded to the site, I have loaded a different (smaller) video.

The truth is, Dustin preached his first sermon 14 years ago tomorrow when he was 3 1/2.  That was the worst day in my life.  I had just been served divorce papers from my estranged husband and I was nothing more than a puddle of self pity on the floor of my living room watching the TV coverage of the Oklahoma City Bombing and wondering if I really wanted to live any more.

Dustin couldn't understand why I was such a mess.  And as much as I loved my four small children, I couldn't seem to pull myself up by my own bootstraps.  I was crying all the time.  Bubba (as we called Dustin back then) came up to me and put his fat little arms around me to console me and get my attention.  Then he asked the saddest question I've ever heard.  "Mommy, If I go to live with Grandma do you think Daddy might come home?"

That sweet little three year old future man thought that he was the reason his father had left.

And his words sank in deep.  It was as if Bubba had opened his mouth and God had spoken. There are reasons God hates divorce.  It is a lie from the pit of hell that a child can come through a divorce unharmed.  It rocks their worlds and forever affects their image of God.  And I knew 100% at that time that Kevin and I were gravely outside of the will of God.  The conviction hung heavy on my back.  A burden I could not carry.

I was exactly where God wanted me to be at that moment.  Broken.

Then the TV reporter announced a story that was not related to the Oklahoma City Bombing.  This was the first piece of non-bombing news I had heard in 4 days.  Three thirteen year old boys had been killed in Duncan, Oklahoma in an oilfield accident. 

It was like God tapped me on my shoulder.  "Andrea, get up.  Those moms have lost their sons.  You still have yours.  Get up and pray for those moms instead of feeling sorry for yoursef."

So I did.  I began praying.  And the very act of praying is what began to heal my broken heart and lift me out of that pit of self pity and despair.   Read the rest of that story: http://www.andreadecker.com/my-checkers-story

Three weeks later Kevin came home.  Dustin, with his chubby little limbs, his buzz cut blond hair, and his huge heart ran to his father.  "Daddy, I knew you'd come home, I knew you'd come home!" 

And I've pondered that in my heart for fourteen years.

Dustin believes he is preaching his first sermon tonight.  But I know the truth.

I've copied and pasted it here too:

Numb to the devastation, I lay on the couch in a self-absorbed pity party for three days while the news coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing hummed in the background. My children scrambled for my attention, but I was too consumed with my own grief. On the day that my hometown mourned a disaster, a bomb had exploded in my own world: My husband had just filed for divorce. It was the darkest day of my life.

It wasn’t until a gripping local story of another tragedy caught my attention that I even considered the needs of anyone else. Three thirteen year-old boys in Duncan, Oklahoma, were killed in an oil field explosion. As I listened to the newscast, I heard the Lord say, “Andrea, you still have your children, and these two mothers have lost theirs. They need your prayers, but that will never happen as long as you are fixated on your own misery.”

That reprimand was like a splash of cold water in my face. As ravaged as my own life was, I knew He was right. I made a decision to begin praying for these mothers. At first, all I could utter were short two-sentence prayers. “Lord, please bring these mothers peace. Heal their hearts.” But as I committed to lifting them up daily, I soon noticed something strange. The more I prayed for them, the more hope I was able to see for my own situation. Gradually, my depression lifted and my own heart began to heal. And then a miracle happened: My husband decided to come back home. I realized that there was a link between praying for others that actually met a need in my own life—and all for prayers on the behalf of women I never even met.

A couple of years after my husband and I reconciled, I went to a Women of Faith conference in Dallas, Texas. Several breakout sessions were offered and I chose to attend one on time management. Hoping for a revelation on how supermoms combine dinner, homework and baths into every evening, I found a seat on the front row. 

“This class will help you prepare your young adults for college,” announced the instructor as the attendees trickled in.

Oops, I’m in the wrong class, I thought. My oldest couldn’t even spell college. I eyed the door, contemplating my escape but by the time I had gathered my things, the session leader had shut the door. It was too late for a polite departure. Grudgingly, I decided to stay but as soon as the class was over, I was beyond ready to leave. As I scrambled for the door, I whispered under my breath, “Wow, that was a waste of time.”

The woman easing out the door next to me cast a curious glance my way.

Oh no. A lip reader.

Embarrassed that she had obviously heard my complaint, I tried to look away, but it was too late. With a look of gentle concern, she inquired, “Why was it a waste of your time?”

“Umm. Because. Well, my children are very young,” I stammered. “This class was really geared towards mothers of high school students.”

I was determined to get away, but the hallway was congested with a shoulder-to-shoulder sea of women, bobbing along like penguins to their next session. There was an opening just big enough for me to escape this uncomfortable interview, except that the lady in front of me had a purse bigger than a piece of Samsonite luggage. I pondered which was more humiliating: Continuing with this interrogation or tackling the Prada queen to allow for my get away.

“How many do you have?” she prodded further.

“How many?”

“Yes…children.”

“Oh, umm. I have four.”

Yes, the restroom is just ahead. I can dart in there.

“How old are they?”

Oh my gosh…Is that the line? I’ll never get away from her.

“Hannah is eight, Gretchen is seven, Dustin is five and Lorelei is three.”

“It must be wonderful to have a large family,” she gushed.

“It’s a lot of work,” I sighed, focusing on the escalator just ahead. I decided that if she veered toward the upside, I was going down.

“Which way are you going?” she inquired.

“Uh, I’m going…up,” I stammered.

“Oh, me too.”

A moment of awkward silence followed. I was at least committed to this conversation for the length of the escalator ride. “How many children do you have?” I asked in obligation.

“I have one who is thirteen,” she replied, pausing to adjust her load of conference books.

One child. I thought. Yeah that’s why you can buy all those books and still have the “time management” to read them all.

“And my son, David,” she said blinking away a tear, “he’ll always be thirteen.”

Suddenly, selfishness collided with compassion. We were now at the top of the escalator but the urge to run evaporated.

“I’m so sorry…what happened?”

"He was in an accident a couple of years ago.”

That’s when I noticed the top book in her arms…a book about overcoming grief. I started to feel a twinge of guilt for having four children. Many days I was stressed over all the responsibilities of raising four kids so close in age, and yet here was a mother who would love to trade places with me.

“A car accident?”

“No. A crazy freak accident. He and his friend were killed in an oil field explosion.”

A jolt of numbing electricity shot through my body. For a moment, time froze. "Is your name…Kathy?” I stammered in disbelief.

“Yeees,” she hesitated. “How did you know?”

“I heard about the accident on the news.”

“It aired here in Dallas?”

“No, I live in Oklahoma City.”

“And you remembered our names?” she asked in astonishment.

“Yes,” I began to explain. “I prayed for your families. It was kind of an assignment from the Lord. I wish I could say that I was because I was so spiritually mature, but in actuality, I was in a horrible state of depression at the time.” Noticing a table ahead I urged, “Do you want to set your stuff down for a minute?”

She nodded.

“My husband had just filed for divorce and I was a complete mess. The day I heard the newscast about your son’s accident I realized that I wasn’t the only one in the world suffering.”

Kathy set her books and purse down.

“Praying for you brought me through the darkest time in my life.”

For a moment we just stood speechless. Then almost in unison, sobbing, we fell into each other’s arms.

“I’m sorry I was so abrasive,” I apologized. “I was embarrassed.”

“That’s okay.”

“How did you get through David’s death?”

“It was hard,” Kathy admitted. “It’s still hard, but God’s grace is strong. Now I do a lot of memorializing.”

“Memorializing?”

“Yes, in every way that I can, I try to remember David’s life. I especially like to encourage mothers with young children. If I could do it all over again,” Kathy continued. “I’d play more checkers.”

“Checkers?”

“Yes. David was always asking me to play checkers with him. But I was always so busy. Oh, I would tell him, ‘Ok, honey, in just a minute…let me finish sweeping the floor.’ Or, ‘Ok darling…I will…just let me finish folding the laundry.’ Kids don’t care how clean your house is. When they get older, they won’t remember the dirt. They’ll remember the time you spent with them.”

I glanced at my watch. Ironically, it was time for the next session to begin. I searched through my purse for something to write my phone number on. We exchanged contact information and promised to keep in touch.

Through the years, we have stayed in contact. And every time we talk, I’m awed and humbled by a God that would go to such great lengths to get my attention—not only to pull me out of my pit of despair but also to help me realize how important it is to spend time with my children, no matter whether I’m tired, have chores to do or errands to run. So if you ever come to our house, don’t look at the dust on the floor or the piles of unfolded laundry. Plan to spend some time with us. And in honor of Kathy’s precious son, David, be prepared to stay for a game of checkers.

Prayer:  Dear Lord, the way that you connect the dots in our lives and weave a thread of fellowship with others is undeniably divine. Thank you for your faithfulness to not only direct our prayers, but to answer our prayers. Help me to always remember the importance of spending time with my family and the relationships you have blessed me with. May I always nurture and protect those relationships and not let unimportant tasks and daily duties interfere with our fellowship. In Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

Scriptures to ponder:

• He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea. Psalm 102:17
• If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered. Proverbs 21:13
• In my distress I called to the LORD; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears. 2 Samuel 22:7 
• Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. Psalm 126:5 
• I call on the LORD in my distress, and he answers me. Psalm 120:1 

Thoughts to Ponder:

• Galatians 6:7 says that a man reaps what he sows. Do you think prayers sown on the behalf of others can benefit us as well? If so, how? 
• Have you ever experienced a divine introduction like Andrea? If so, describe what happened. 
• Have you ever felt led to pray for someone you didn’t know, either through a story you heard from a friend, on TV, the newspaper, Facebook or the internet? Share how praying for that person made you feel.

Kevin Decker: http://www.twitter.com/OKRtek (he's a brilliant architect who can write specs like no other)

Hannah Decker:  http://www.twitter.com/HannahDecker (a University Scholar at Baylor)

Gretchen Decker:  http://www.twitter.com/Gretch_D (a person refusing to be summed up in one sentence)

Dustin Decker: http://www.twitter.com/DustinDecker (a 17 year old with shoulders disproportionately wide compared to his waist--with an eye on military service)

Lorelei Decker:  http://www.twitter.com/LoreleiDecker (our Jesus loving, must-change-picture-on-Facebook-once-per-day, social butterfly)

And of course there's me:  Andrea Decker: http://www.twitter.com/KermitRocks (because who doesn't love Kermit?)

This obituary was first published by Countryside Funeral Home.  (http://www.countrysidefh.com/obits.php?ID=0000000467)   I have simply copied and pasted it here.

Robert Clifford Webb Garman age 68 was born June 3, 1940 to Martha Ellen (Raedeker) Garman and Clare Allan Garman in Cushing Oklahoma. He left this life February 22, 2009. He is survived by his wife Connie (Jones) Garman of the home in Moline, Kansas, and his son Scott Garman of Oklahoma City and daughter and son-in-law Andrea and Kevin Decker of Oklahoma City. He left behind four grandchildren, Hannah, Gretchen, Dustin and Lorelei Decker of Oklahoma City, many aunts and cousins, sister-in-law (and brother-in-law) Judy and Van VanCleave of Moline, Kansas and brother-in-law (and sister-in-law) Bob and Joyce Jones of Wichita, Kansas as well as many beloved nieces and nephews.

I've been so busy micro-blogging (via Twitter) that I have completely neglected my "real" blog here.  I was reminded of this today when I found a link to my blog on the Oklahoma Women's Network Blog.  I didn't even know they knew I existed!

I hereby resolve to apply more effort to balance my personal Blog/Micro-Blog scale.

Here is the screenshot.

http://babyproducts.about.com/b/2008/11/16/motrin-moms-angry-over-babywearing-advertisement.htm

http://smalldots.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/motrin-moms-react/
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/11/motrin-faces-twitter-headache-over-new-video-campaign.html

http://jessicagottlieb.com/2008/11/16/blame-me-for-motrin-moms/

http://www.drumsnwhistles.com/2008/11/16/twitter-swarm-motrin-v-moms/

The presentation by Jeremy Fuksa of Barkley at OKC AdClub's Career Day was very inspiring.  I just couldn't help myself.

The presentation was called "From Cowboy to Astronaut: Lessons From the Trail, New Worlds on the Horizon"  Jeremy let us know how the creative process works at Barkley and told us about many cutting-edge things.  He doled out some amazingly valuable advice, based on his 15 years in the biz. 

This is a link to Jeremy's intro video.

If you have any interest in learning about online reputation management, I highly recommend these two articles by Justin Boeckman:

Online Reputation Management

Online Reputation Management Part 2: Responding to Negative Remarks

10 Secrets to Driving Sales Via Email

This is a PDF of that article.

This is a Word document list of a few resources I found.

And below is that list:

Election Day 2008 was a fun filled day.  Even more fun for one using Twitter and Brightkite.  No matter where I went I was always connected to a community of people I respect and trust.  I learned about the length of voting lines, who was where for lunch, the latest exit poll results, and where to go with my "I voted sticker" so I could get free coffee, or a doughnut or a Chick-Fil-A sandwich.  I was even able to torture my 18 year old daughter by posting a photo of her as she left the middle school after voting for her very first time.

 I FINALLY decided to update my website since it had been using the same design for over two years.  I really started grooving around midnight (since the trick or treaters were no longer coming around.)  Now it is 3:11am!  I can't believe how the time flew.  But I got a bunch done.  Much more productive when nobody else is up to interrupt me!

Silly Cuisinart; they should know better than to vend a defective coffee pot to a woman who loves her coffee!