FRI APR 3

Haven't done one of these in awhile! Even though everybody seems to hate it when I do this type of blog, I thought I might just go ahead and do one for old time's sake! I'm actually thinking of doing this type of post every day next week. Just to drive my readership even lower. I'm such a rebel.

Alarm woke me up a little after 6:30. Desperately wanted to sleep some more, but Finley heard the alarm and decided it was time to get up. Laid on the couch for a few minutes while my body woke up, then I went in to get Jonah up for school. We're pretty fortunate that Jonah is a morning kid. I don't think any 7-year old ever wants to get up for school, but after four or five minutes, Jonah is usually wide awake and ready for the day.

I grabbed a shower while Krist got Jonah dressed and packed up for school. He and I actually left the house a bit earlier than usual, which was nice because I didn't have to drive like a maniac to get him there on time. After I dropped him off, I stopped by Donut Palace. Don't judge me.

Now, listen. We've all been to a Donut Palace. There are some certain similarities that we all probably understand. I love our local store. I love it even more when the guy is working. Because when his sister (or wife) works, I honestly cannot understand what she's saying. Most of the time, I think she's asking where the kids are. Or if I really meant to order 4 cinnamon rolls. Either way, I just chuckle. Usually I leave with an order that's pretty close to what I requested, so that's good.

Got home, handed over the donuts, checked email and such and then I didn't lay back down for a long morning nap. Not me - just thought I'd clarify that.

Then when I woke up I mean after I finished working out, Finley and I watched some of those weird TV shows she likes. (Ni Hao, Kai Lan, Yo Gabba Gabba, etc.) We sang "Wheels On The Bus" and her special renditon of "The Grady Bunch."

I actually did exercise...popped in a DVD of Battlestar and hit the treadmill for about a half-hour. Worked on my situp challenge...no, I will not divulge my status. Grabbed a shower and got dressed. After a while we headed out to pick up Jonah from school. Once we got Jonah,we headed into town for some Andy's Frozen Custard, ice cream that's so good, you willingly pay way too much money for it.

After Andy's, we went to Target for a few groceries and then took Jonah to soccer practice. Finley and I stayed at home while Jonah got all practiced up. Finley went to be around 7. Jonah finished The Clone Wars on DVD while Kristen did some stuff to get ready for Sunday's home group. Ate some supper, "played wrestling" with Jonah and threw him in the tub. Normally, he stays up a little bit later than normal on Fridays, but tonight got away from us. After his bath, he was ready for sleep.

After he was down, Kristen went to bed. I hit the treadmill again. (Dedication) Watched some more Battlestar as I ran, showered and hit the sack.

My Friday

Woke up around 7. Thankfully, my wife made me go to be early the night before, so I felt pretty good getting up.

Finley was up, too, but Jonah was still sleeping away in his room. We all started rushing around like crazy because we were heading to Lufkin for some early "trick-or-treating" with our families. (The last time we went to Lufkin, we ended up leaving WAY later than we had planned, which no doubt frustrated all those anxious grandparents back home who were dying to see their grandchildren.)

We also were FREEZING, so we fired up the heat in the house. (First time to do that...it's like the official start of Christmas, isn't it?)

We all got ready and headed to Lufkin by 8:50. We got on the phone to make sure all our various family folks knew we were headed to town. We got to "Sugar's" house by 10:30 and had some of her delicious fudge! Her house was decorated for fall, candles are lit and the fudge was still warm. What a welcome!

I headed to lunch around noon to meet up with some of my Lufkin buds. Since moving, I hadn't seen Chris, David or Clay. We had a great time - spent about two hours just laughing and catching up on what's been happening.

After lunch, came home. The kids played outside, watched cartoons, and Kristen and I just lounged around with them. I took a 20 minute nap (my favorite kind!) and then got up so we could start getting kids ready to go trick-or-treating. Yes...we did the Halloween thing a week early. More on that at a later time!

The kids had a blast - their costumes looked great and our families had loads of candy for them. We ended the night at my grandparents. We scheduled that later so that we'd have more time to hang out. In fact, since we bathed the kids before leaving that evening, we threw them in the PJs so they'd both go to sleep on the way home! We got back to Sugar's around 9. Both kids were asleep. I edited some video while Kristen and her mom talked for about an hour or so.

Just before going to bed, Kristen got sick. Like, you know...sick. But ever since her whole gallbladder incident she's turned out to be a real trooper when it comes to sickness. She stayed a little while composing herself before bed. Once she was resting, I took a shower. All in all, all were in bed and accounted for by midnight.

It was a fantastic day!

My Friday...

My Friday...video version! from Todd Wright on Vimeo.

My Friday...

I had an official "My Friday" post already to go, but the fact is that Jonah and I did something so cool today that it was a natural replacement for my typical post.

Jonah and I have been thinking/dreaming/plotting a giant Nerf War with his friends. Last night, we added a couple of new guns to our arsenal and decided to break them in today.

After a rousing game of shoot-daddy-with-as-many-darts-as-possible, we decided to get creative.

And this is what happened...


Nerf Battle! from Todd Wright on Vimeo.

We had a blast. Although you'd be surprised at how much footage it takes to make a 1 minute movie!

My Friday (Photo Edition)

I had every intention of documenting our whole day with pictures. And then I forgot to take pictures.

Well, I eventually remembered, but you'll have to settle for a couple of online jpegs for our morning errands.

Our first stop was to Wal-Mart. Kristen ran in and got some stuff and looked for some replacement bulbs for the tail light on our jeep. (Which I haven't installed yet.)

After Wal-Mart, I visited the fine folks at the Tyler Municipal Court. It seems that they wanted some money from me. Apparently, when I met that nice motorcycle policeman a couple of weeks ago, I incurred some sort of "fine." However, I have to say that the cashiers were really friendly. Seriously...having worked in local government, I know that rudeness is sometimes the M.O. at offices like that, but I was reallly impressed with the lady who helped me.

(I'd like to make a little aside here about how weird downtown Tyler is, but I can quite put my finger on it. It's just...you know...weird.)

After the ticket errand, we drove back into town to eat some lunch. We all went to "Mercado's" for some Tex-Mex. I was impressed because the kids actually ate! (They normally don't eat very much.) We split a sampler meal and got out of there for under $20. That Kristen Wright knows how to manage money, kids.

While driving around, we noticed that gas had dropped a bit. So we got some. I was especially glad that we were getting gas in that particular part of town because I had recently noticed a station that had a very weird sign. I'm not sure what that white line is, but does that look like gas is $13 a gallon to you, too? 'Cause it looks that way to me. And that's I why I took a picture.

Then we headed back downtown to check out the Tyler Library. It was a strange experience. First of all, the librarians were very nice and helpful. And it's a good thing...because we couldn't check out any books. As it turns out, since we live in Flint (which is outside of Tyler city limits, we aren't allowed to check out books. It's a tax issue. I blame Obama.)

However, you can pay for a 'punch' card which allows you to check out books. (And if you get a tenth punch, you get a free Atomic Sub. Wait..that's not right...) So we went ahead and rented some books from the city of Tyler. I was interested in trying to finish up the "Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan, but the selection was hit-and-miss, so I got a giant book by Terry Goodkind. We'll see.

On the way home, Finley napped while Kristen and Jonah read books and I drove home. I stopped by the convenience store to pick up some M&Ms for our movie night.

Once home, Jonah played, Finley watched Charlie Brown and Kristen played on Facebook.

We made quesadillas for supper, bathed the kids and then settled in for a very special TV night. Tonight, Cartoon Network premiered two brand new series ("Secret Saturdays" and "Clone Wars," both of which Jonah has been anticipating for weeks!)

We made popcorn w/ M&M's and watched Cartoon Network. We put the kids to bed not long after the shows were over. I exercised, Kristen read, I blogged while watching 'Blades of Glory' and then went to bed!

My Friday

Finley woke up a bit before 7, so I got up with her. We lounged around the living room for a bit. Somehow, she found a bag of Cheetoh's and began her 'breakfast' without me knowing.

Once I got the Cheetoh's away from her, she wanted to go out into the backyard to see our cat, whom she ABSOLUTELY LOVES! Except I keep forgetting we have a new security system that Kristen sets to "stay" during the night...which means that the second a door is opened the entire house explodes w/ sirens.

I get the sirens turned off and Finley played outside for a bit. She eventually came in and we had some breakfast, watched cartoons...you know, LAZINESS. Kristen and Jonah slept pretty late, but once the A/C man called to schedule a repair on our non-functioning air conditioner, we all got up and ready for some cool air!

We hung out while the dude fixed the A/C. (Very nice guy...Bullard Air Conditioning is the way to go, gang.) After that was done, the kids and I headed into town. Kristen had lunch with her friend Marla, so we went to the bookstore to buy some books! Finley got a Mickey Mouse book, Jonah got Spongebob (of course,) I got 2 books (N.T. Wright and Ted Dekker,) and I picked up a new Bible for Kristen. After the bookstore, we stopped by Target for some groceries/supplies then headed home.

We had lunch, then I put Finley down for a nap. Kristen got home around 2:30 or 3 and I hit the treadmill. (Had a great run...probably the most fun run I've had to date!) I grabbed a shower and we lounged around a bit more. Pretty soon, we made some dinner plans with the Strader's. Let me tell you something - those are fun people to hang out with.

After dinner, we all came back to the Wright house so the kids could play. Ross and I had been toying with the idea of seeing "Eagle Eye," so we got online, bought tickets and caught the 9:55 show. I won't do a whole review of the movie, but it was a fun ride. Utterly ridiculous storyline, but some great action and humor...and some cool story-pacing and camera work, too.

Got home around 1am, wrote this blog and went to bed!

BE SURE AND VOTE ON THE 'MIGHTY TO SAVE' POLL AT THE BLOG!

My Friday...

At some point, Jonah ended up in our bed. That's not a rare occurrence, but it's also night an every-night type of thing. Kristen got up with Finley and let Jonah and I sleep in. Eventually, he got up and I was the only one left sleeping.

Finally got up around 7:45 and let Kristen lay down for a bit. I chilled with the kids. Finley watched some "Dora" while Jonah played G.I. Joe's in the playroom. Eventually, Jonah remembered that Krist had found our long lost GameCube memory card and we HAD to play some Marvel Nemesis.

So we did. And the little man seriously destroyed me in the game, which not such a big deal, except he kept talking smack...which I hate. In any game. Not a fan of the smack-talking. So, I put my controller up so he could ostensibly smack-talk the computer generated opponent.

We were pretty lazy around the house. Kristen got ready and headed into town to pick up some stuff for the house, including our new picnic table for the back porch! I played with the kids, made lunch, put Finley down for a nap and played with Jonah some more. When Krist got home, the three of us (me, her, Jonah) unloaded the picnic table and set it up in the backyard. Once that was done, I decided to go for a run outside. It was a hot day, but there was still a nice breeze and the streets were nice and clear. Running outside is always a shock to the system when I've been mostly on the treadmill. The treadmill has its perks - my speed/time stays consistent, whereas outside I'm more prone to slow down or 'hit the wall' in random places. But running outside also seems to work my legs in a totally different way, since I'm dealing with inclines and curves and stuff.

After the run, I grabbed a shower and we all got ready to go to the park. We took the kids to the park in Bullard. They had a good time. While they played, Krist and I discussed dinner plans and then decided to buy Jonah some new shoes in town. We headed into town, perplexed as to where we could eat. (Finding a restaurant on Friday nights is one of my worst things...)

We settled on "Carino's," but the wait was 20 minutes and our kids were starving. So we see this place behind Carino's called "Newk's." We had no idea what to expect, but we went in.

Wow! Newk's is fantastic. It's like a soup/sandwich/salad place. It had a great atmosphere, wasn't too expensive and we got our stuff quick. Plus, it tasted fantastic. While there, we were texting with Ross' crew and decided to hang out for some after-dinner ice cream. The kids played, we chatted w/ Ross and Leslie and then came home.

The kids fell asleep pretty quick - we got in pretty late. Krist and I went to bed not long after. For Saturday the plan is mowing, changing a tire, buying shoes and maybe another run.

My Friday

Woke up at 7 to take care of Finley. I let Kristen and Jonah sleep in...knowing I would could my chance for some day-off rest once they got up.

Finley watched some Dora while I ate a nice, healthy breakfast of chocolate pop-tarts and milk. (If only I hand't finished up the chocolate milk on Thursday night!)

Jonah woke up around 8 and Kristen let me sleep a little, too! It was so nice.

Once everybody was up, we lounged around the house, not doing a whole lot. Cartoons were watched, emails checked, breakfast shared, all that jazz.

We all ate lunch kinda' randomly...a sandwich here, a hot dog there, then all get ready to head "into town." (I'm glad I still live out of actual town, just like we did in Lufkin. Because I can say "Let's go to town!" and I sound like somebody from Little House On The Prairie. Not that I watch Little House, mind you.)

I know Tyler is big and all, but the traffic just blows my mind. I mean, are we really SO big that the intersections are filled every day, all day? Tyler folks...got any theories? So, we wade through traffic and hit up Target.

We get the kids in the buggy and walk toward the flashlight display. You know, so we'll have light in case Ike rips across Texas destroying homes and lives and trees and rivers? When all of a sudden, we see a camera dude filming the flashlight display. No doubt wanting that perfect shot of dozens of flashlights flying off the shelves. That's some good B-roll, right there.

Except no one will walk up there. Because who wants to be on TV, right?

I'll tell you who...ME.

I walk up there, grab a pack of flashlights and then face the camera and invite all of the Tyler area to morning worship services at Bethel Bible Church this coming Sunday. They probably won't put that in the news story though. Leftist, liberal media!

After Target, we headed back home. Finley fell asleep in the car. We laid her down, Jonah went to the play room, Kristen unpacked groceries while I watched football. (Kidding about the football. Only losers like football.)

While Finley slept and Jonah played, Kristen and I mounted our TV on the wall. We usually do pretty good at stuff like this...mainly because Kristen does all the work and I hand things to her. Believe me...we've tried it the other way around and it that never ends well.

Once the TV was mounted, Finley got up from her nap and we got ready for supper. We had supper, then bathed the kids. They watched The Spongebob Movie and then went to bed. Both went to sleep pretty fast...lots of playing outside today, I guess.

Kristen was out before 10pm and I went to bed not long after. No late-night for me, tonight. Too tired.

...praying for my Lufkin peeps. Hate to say "hunker down," but, you know...

HUNKER DOWN.

My Friday

4:45.

Yep. 4:45. AM.

Finley Grace Wright...up at 4:45am...ready to start her day.

So, I got up, filled her cup and put her back in bed. For fifteen minutes.

For the next hour or so, that's the little game we played - Dad trying desperately to put a child back to sleep. For an hour.

I've been a parent for six years. Not a long time, but long enough to know two things:

#1. Sometimes, you can get a kid back to sleep if you do it just right.
#2. Sometimes, they are not going back to sleep short of having their sippy cup spiked with Benadryl.

Since we didn't have any Benadryl (No, Kristen...I didn't actually look for some,) we had lots of fun "playing" while Daddy laid on the carpet and dozed.

Kristen woke up at 7 and I laid back down for a bit. Once everybody was up, we got to work! Krist and I began washing every clothing item we own so we can pack as much as possible. We also washed dishes and packed them up and then cleaned out our closets of lots of clothes we don't use anymore. (It's horrible how much stuff we have that we don't use. Don't tell Shaun Groves.)

After some work, Jonah ran into town for some errands. We hit the bank, the grocery store, then grabbed some lunch for the family. After we got home, Kristen and I were about to tackle one of the porches when Finley woke up. As you can probably see from the video below, Finley wasn't feeling well on Friday, so she had napped much earlier than usual.

We did some more work around the house, filling boxes, picking up clutter and then it was time to get ready for our party!

We dropped off Jonah at his cousin's house and then to Finley to Sugar's. Tonight we had dinner with the FUMC praise band at Chris Caraway's house. It was a great time - good food, lots of laughter and memories about our journey together as we've led worship. It was a sad parting for me...I'll see most of those folks on Sunday, but the whole leaving thing is really sinking in this weekend.

We left the party and little after 9, picked up kids and got home to put them straight into bed. We were pretty worn out so we hit the sack a little earlier than usual!

Tomorrow - more packing!

Other Fridays:
Ross
Artie

My Friday...video version!

Oh, yeah...we're gettin' nuts around here!

Sorry for the low volume...Finley was asleep in the room right next to me.

Still figuring out this iMovie thing...so far, so good...hoping to keep making them better! Enjoy!



Other Fridays:
Artie
Kandice

My Friday...

Naturally, I woke up around 3 because a six-year old boy had snuck into my bed and was slowly pushing me closer and closer to the edge.

I get up, look at him curled up in bed with Kristen and opted to just find another place to sleep. (I can sleep anywhere!)

Kristen woke me up a little after 5 because Finley had been up for awhile and Mom wanted some sleep! I got Finley back to sleep for another hour or so. Around 6:30, that beautiful two-year old face was perched right over mine as she whispered.

"Daddy..."

So I wake up. Kinda. She wants juice and I say okay. But before I could get up, I look over to find her sound asleep on the other couch. Maybe she was sleep-walking when she asked me for juice.

Never one to tempt fate - I let that little girl sleep!

A good while later, Jonah came in and woke us both up. I went back to see if Kristen was awake. (She wasn't.) So, after a few minutes of screaming in her ear, my wife finally woke up.

We lounged around a bit, waiting for our water to come on. (Apparently our water line sprung a leak at some point on Thursday.) Everybody finally got ready and we headed into town.

We picked up my paycheck, went to the bank, grabbed lunch at Ray's Drive-In and then ran a few more errands. Jonah and I located which Lufkin cinema was showing "Clone Wars," so we could catch it on Saturday.

We got home around 2:30. Finley had fallen asleep in the car so we laid her down. Jonah played some PSP, Kristen read and I went for a run on the treadmill.

After my run, I cleaned up around the house a bit, played with Jonah and then we headed to a birthday party for Kristen's brother.

We got home from the party around 8:35 and got the kids in bed. Krist and I were asleep not long after that!

What a day!

OTHER FRIDAYS
Kandice
Artie (video version)

My Friday.

Woke up around 6...not sure why. Somewhere around 4, Jonah had ended up in bed with us. So, to give him a little more room, I got up and headed into the living room.

I laid on the couch for awhile until Finley came in with a book and her sippy cup. I got her some milk and got off the couch so she could lay down.

She watched Little Einsteins while I went to YouTube to see if I could find the Steven Curtis Chapman interview from last night's Larry King Live. I found the segments online and watched a few. Man, I am so amazed by this family. I had been warned about Larry, though. I found his interview style very distressing, as if he was rushing each family member to finish their thoughts before they were really done. It's strange to me that America has so embraced a man as a consumate interview host with skills as rough as King's. (I'm of the opinion that Charlie Rose is probably the best "interviewer" of our time, but I could be wrong.)

After that, I exercised just a bit, got ready for the day, played some Bionicle with Jonah and then met my Dad who was bringing donuts by for the kids.

Once the donut handoff was completed, I headed into town to run sound at the church for the culmination our our Music and Drama camp for kids. I got there about 9:30, setup mics and monitors, got my script and headed up to the booth. (It wasn't a major production, but I still had to follow the script to make sure I didn't mess up!)

The show went off without a hitch. Kristen and Jonah were coming back from a haircut so they picked me up. Then, we grabbed Finley from my mother-in-law and headed to THE LUFKIN MALL!

We headed straight for "Lunar Mini Golf," which Jonah has been dying to play since it opened up. Finley wasn't digging the darkness, so Kristen took her to the play area while Jonah and I played some. Krist and I traded off so she could play with Jonah. Finley and I headed up to Chick-Fil-A and then down to the Great American Cookie Company where I embarassed myself with regard to cookie consumption.

After that, we came home. Finley fell asleep for about twenty minutes, but didn't nap when we laid her down. After a while, Finley and I took a little drive to stock up on some foodstuffs for the family. We came home, ate some supper, visited with my mom and grandmother and then bathed the kids.

Finley, not having a nap, went to sleep pretty quick and Jonah, Kristen and I watched some sort of new version of Garfield on Cartoon Network. After a little TV and some book time, Jonah went to bed. Kristen and I layed around reading, playing on the computer for awhile and then I went to bed!

My Friday...

Well, this started out as a pretty normal "My Friday" post, but there were two big items for today, so I figured I'd focus on them.

1. Krist and I got new phones today!
That's right, it's been forever since we've both had a phone, so we decided to jump back into phone bills, text messages and constant communication with people we don't really like. It's a whole new number and I'm gonna' need some of you to send my numbers again. Maybe I should join that "I-lost-my-phone" group on Facebook...

2. And then there was this...



It was a very big day for Jonah! (And the rest of us, too...) Hope your day was worth blogging about!

My Friday...

Because Jonah had been sick on Thursday night, he slept in our bed. Krist and I stayed up way too late playing a new Agatha Christie game called "And Then There Were None" on the Wii. (Awesome...)

Kristen went to bed and I opted to sleep on the couch so Jonah would have lots of room to flail about.

In the early hours of Friday morning, I was dreaming that I was looking at a laminated chart of great developments in the history to the electric washer and drier (which were invented by Albert Einstein in my dream.) At some point within that craziness, someone in my dream began screaming "DADDY!"

Once I realized that it was not, in fact, Albert Einstein, I dashed down the hall to find Jonah feeling sick and needing a little TLC. Once he felt a bit better, he got up and came in the living room. Kristen and Finley kept sleeping.

Jonah and I lounged for a good while, being about as lazy as we could be and feeling good about ourselves that we were being nice to let Mom and Sister sleep in. Once they got up, I slept. I mean...I slept.

Kristen finally woke me up and kept saying ridiculous things like "let's clean this house." She knows it's Friday, right? I mean...how cool would this post if I blogged about cleaning the house? Not cool, that's how. She actually got busy picking stuff up, which I do appreciate, because this house is filthy.

We all got dressed and headed into town. We were headed to pick up a prescription for Kristen, but halfway there, she roared 'I AM HUNGRY' and we screeched into the nearest parking lot we could find.

We all ate at Cotton Patch, which was delightful in spite of some sort of change regarding the preparation of french fries. I remember their fries being golden brown and crispy through-and-through, which I prefer. Today's fries were not crispy. At all. But the rest of our food was great.

We then drove over to Sam's to pick up Kristen's prescription. (Anybody else use Sam's for prescriptions? They're great.) After that, we headed to the mall to pick up some stuff for Jonah to read. He's a great reader, but he's pretty much read through all his stuff and I wanted to get him something else to dig into.

By the time we got out of the bookstore, Jonah had a giant Spongebob book. (I know, I know. But hey, he's reading, okay?) Finley got Kung-Fu Panda and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Kristen got some sort of Pride and Prejudice spin off. (A la Glen Beck's "bonnet movie" idea...)

We drove home, put Finley down for a nap. Kristen and Jonah read for awhile, then Jonah got his Wii-time. Kristen kept reading, I worked on the computer for a bit and my Mom called asking if the kids could come over later that evening! Yay! Free child-care! Kristen and I got all excited and the prospect of free-time. Then we realized we'd probably just use the time to go to Target or something.

We dropped the kids off and headed into town. Kristen is still eating very little as her body learns how to live without a gall bladder, so I got some fast food and she ate a little ice cream.

After that, we went to Home Depot. I have serious problems with Home Depot, Lowe's, and other home improvement stores, but because I love and cherish my wife, we went.

After driving around town, just talking and hanging out, we headed back to our house for a bit. Krist stayed home and chilled while I drove back over and got picked up the kids. They were bathed when I got there, but still wanted to play. My grandparents were there, so I hung out with Mom, Dad, PaPa and GiGi until the kids were tired and ready to go home.

Finley went to sleep pretty soon after arriving home and Jonah was out not long after that. Kristen messed around on the computer for awhile, then went to bed. Tonight was technically an exercise night, but last night's tennis match with Jonah wrecked my ankles and I was afraid a run might actually result in something broken, shattered or sprained. There's always tomorrow!

I got in bed, watched a movie on the laptop and then crashed!


Other Fridays: (as of this posting...if there are others, I will link them.)
David
Artie
Kandice
Finn
Strader
Angela
Romack
Robert
Stephanie
Sarah
Jason

Be A Part Of It...

According to my Blogger labels, I started "My Friday" in May of 2007.

I certainly haven't done it every week, but it is one of the more fun posts for me. I look forward to it!

Last week, I try to shake things up a bit by asking YOU to join the "My Friday" movement. I asked all of you to post a recap of your Friday so we could all see what everybody's up to!

But you didn't. In fact, the only person who did was this gal, who is now totally awesome and cool because she did what I asked. (Being my friend isn't difficult, you see? Just obey me.)

But, after thinking on it for awhile, I realize I made a few mistakes.
#1. I didn't promote it early enough.
#2. I didn't troubleshoot some of the natural questions that arise.



So, here I am, promoting this thing bright and early Thursday morning! Come on...take a chance! Live a little! Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'. Take your blog to whole new level!

As to the questions, here are my answers.


A. No...your post doesn't have to follow any formula. You can be as specific or as general as you want to be.


B. You don't have to recall the whole day! Maybe you had one interesting thing happen to you all day. Post that! Or maybe nothing happened. Post that!

C. Yes, you should use the "My Friday" graphic that I use. Because branding is everything.



No, you don't have to make it a regular type of blog. (Although I recommend it!) But for just once, this Friday, July 25th, let's get a little blog community thing happening here!



If you post one, too, leave a comment on my Friday post so everybody can check you out!



Okay...let's do it! I want to hear about your Friday!

Graphic below is intellectual property of Todd Wright, Inc. and is being offered as a one-time free download for bloggers intent on joining the My Friday movement. Please note that this graphic that Todd designed is totally rockin'.

WHO'S IN?

My Friday...

Finley woke up at 6:15. She's now discovered how to open the door to her room, so now, instead of calling us, we hear her rummaging around in the kitchen...which is something you do not want your 2-year old doing.

(While I as leading worship at camp, Kristen walked in one afternoon to find her at the kitchen counter eating peanut butter. With an ink pen.)

So, we hear Finley in the kitchen and Kristen mumbles...

"i got...first...yester...your...turn..."

It made me so angry. Doesn't she know I was up late watching Arrested Development and eating cereal? Don't I need my rest?

Anyway, I got up, got Finley her apple juice and we lounged in the living room while Jonah and Kristen slept.

And slept.

And slept.

Jonah woke up just before 8. Finley was so excited to see him she grabbed his hand and started kissing it. (We're really blessed in that our two kids really do LOVE hanging out together!)

Not long after, Kristen got up. I went through a little moral dilemma at that time - sleep or exercise.?

I chose exercise. Ran on the treadmill for a while, then grabbed a shower and got dressed. We didn't really have any plans for the day. (We've been trying to stay at home as much as possible, since gas prices are little bit higher than normal. Don't know if you've noticed...)

The kids were dressed so I decided to run up the road and visit with my grandparents. It's weird - they live literally fifty yards from us and yet we have a hard time meeting up. Gotta' fix that.

Anyway, Jonah, Finley and I hung out there for about a half-hour then ran back home to pick up Krist. We ran to the bank and then decided to pop in and see Kristen's dad, who works out of town during the week. We ended up eating lunch over there, which was nice. After hanging out and "visitin'," we headed back home.

Put Finley down for a nap, Jonah fired up the Wii, Kristen read a magazine and I snuck in a nap!

After the nap, we all went over to see visit my Dad for awhile. We had a really good time. Dad is moving around pretty good on the walker and doing a good job of dealing with all of the stuff that comes from having an accident like that. We ate supper, plowed through dozens of chocolate donuts (another story for another day...my Dad really needs a blog, by the way.)

The kids played, we all hung around and talked and laughed for a good while. We got home a little before 8pm and threw the kids in the tub. Finley went to bed (but not to sleep) pretty quick and Jonah went to sleep a little after 9. I ran to CVS to pick up some stuff then came back home. At one point earlier in the evening, Kristen had released me to go see Batman, but we're headed out of town tomorrow and a 3 hour superhero movie might be something I regret tomorrow morning. I'll get to it next week probably.

While Kristen lounged around, I actually hit the treadmill AGAIN! Yes...that's 2 workouts in one day. Why? Why not?

After exercise, showered, got some stuff together for the trip on Saturday and went to bed!
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I asked this a few weeks ago: Won't somebody else do a "My Friday" post? It would be such a cool tradition! You could even use the little logo up top. We could start a worldwide blogging movement.

Wanna' Join In?

Hey, readers!

What do you say we all do a "my Friday" post?

At the end of today, why not share what you did with your Fourth?

Might be fun!

My Friday...

I went up to the church on Thursday night to do some work. I got home about midnight, so I'm considering that to be the start of my Friday.

I got to be around 12:30am and I was really looking forward to it. I was tired and had my iPod sleep-mix all cued up with Viva La Vida. (Which really does sound good...)

At 1:10, I felt someone tapping on my shoulder. Jonah was up and wanted to sleep in bed with us. Normally, this might not be that big of a deal, but since Kristen has been so sore and sleeping so fitfully, I told him I'd take him up to his room.

He didn't like that.

At one point in the conversation, he called me a liar. That's always nice at one in the morning, right?

I got him up to his room and laid down beside him. The original plan was to lay by him until he drifted off, then head back to my big, soft, grown-up bed. Instead, I woke up in his bed at 7am.

He and I came downstairs. My mother-in-law, who we call "Sugar," had spent the night since I was working late. Of course, she was already up, making coffee and cleaning up the kitchen. I crashed on the couch while Jonah surfed for some cartoons, landing on Spider-Man. I'm not sure what really happened next. All I knew was that I was on a couch and I needed to be up and awake by 8 to get ready for an appointment.

I got off the couch a little after 8 and grabbed a shower. Then I headed out to get my hair cut! (Much needed...felt so much better after getting all that stuff cut off! I asked the girl about growing it out a bit. She looked at me like I was insane.)

Came home to find Jonah smoking through levels on Fantastic Four for Wii and Finley running around. Finley immediately led me to the door and started begging to jump on the trampoline. Sugar got her some "play clothes" and she and I headed out. She jumped, then went to our little playhouse for some swinging and sliding. After twenty or thirty minutes we came in.

We ate an early lunch while Krist and her mom went out to run some errands.

When they got back, Kristen ate a little bit and we started getting ready for Finley's nap. At this point, Jonah had a breakdown of sorts...I handled myself well, considering that I wanted to wring his neck. (It's like Leave It To Beaver over here.) Shortly after the storm died down, my mother-in-law said,

"Why don't I call Stephanie (Krist's cousin) and see if Jonah can come play with Tyler (her son)?"

And before her sentence was done, I shouted "yes."

They left thirty minutes later. I put Finley down for a nap. It took her about half-an-hour to go to sleep, but as soon as she did, it was time for a little, tiny, snippet of a nap for Mom and Daddy.

...and then we slept for almost 2 hours.

After awhile, Krist's mom came back over. (She's been such a big help for us around here.) We all lounged around, ate an early supper.

Jonah didn't get back until 8 o'clock, and we sat around visiting w/ Kristen's cousin and aunt while the kids all played together. We put Finley to bed not long after they left, but she did not want to go! Jonah went to bed a little after 9, but was scared for some reason. I sat on his stairs for awhile to calm his fears and then came down as he was drifting off.

Hung out with Kristen for a bit, did the treadmill while watching Gone Baby Gone and then to bed!

My Friday...and it's a long one

Jonah woke up at 5:20 but thankfully went back to his bed (instead of climbing in ours...)

After I took him back upstairs, I sat in the living room for a minute or two while he went back to sleep. While I was waiting, I grabbed the laptop. (I know it's weird. It's what I do.)

I checked a few emails and looked to see if any of my night-owl friends had posted anything while I was sleeping. When I opened my browser my eyes immediately saw "Top 100 Guitar Songs Of All Time." Did I click it? What do you think?

I flew over to Rolling Stone's website and started reading through the list. My first thought was something mean and angry regarding their pick for number one. My second thought was "I must blog this."

So I opened up blogger and spend a few minutes pasting in Rolling Stone's top 30 picks. (Post forthcoming.)

After awhile I looked up and realized it was nearing 6am, so I went back to bed. Finley woke up about an hour later, but Kristen was kind enough to let me sleep. I woke up about 8 and took over. Krist laid back down for a bit. I got breakfast for the kids, cuddled with them on the couch, picked up the kitchen a bit...nothing major.

Once Kristen gets back up, Jonah and I head upstairs for a Transformer battle. He's been really into his Bionicle toys lately, but I think watching Optimus and his boys last night reminded the kid that he has dozens of Transformers in his room. We go upstairs and battle for awhile. Originally, Mudflap tried to ambush Hot Rod. Hot Rod couldn't stay in the fight and called in Optimus. Before Optimus got there, another Autobot named Landmine showed up and try to settle things down, but Mudflap knocked him down and stomped him until he was dead. But have no fear - Optimus showed up, went into "Super Mode" and destroyed the bad guy in just a few seconds.

Jonah and I came downstairs and he found some other brand of toys he wanted to play with. I headed back to the treadmill and ran a few miles. I'm really enjoying the running these days. And the treadmill really helps me maintain my pace. I plan on marking off some running paths around the house here over the next few months to mix it up a little.

After the treadmill, I grabbed a shower and started getting ready for our date!

Friday was our Tenth Anniversary. For ten years, Kristen Carnley has filled my life with laughter and joy and purpose. She taught me how to be a better follower of Jesus, she's given me two amazing kids (who seemed to get all their good traits from her,) and she makes our home my favorite place to be.

Because we try to keep a pretty consistent routine for the kids at night, we try to do our dates earlier in the day. Kristen's mom got out of school at 1 and came home to take care of the kids.

We packed their bathing suits and headed over to mom-in-law's ("Sugar's") house. She had the kiddie pool pulled out for them and they could not wait to jump in! We got them settled and then headed to eat. The original plan had been to see a matinee and then grab an early dinner before picking up the kids. However, we were so hungry that we skipped the movie. Plus, there was nothing that we wanted to see. (Where are those summer blockbusters when you need them?) So, we chose "late lunch" over "early dinner."

As many of you know, restaurant options are not that great. I figured we'd do Olive Garden or maybe even head to Nacogdoches to eat. Imagine my surprise when Kristen tells me she wants salmon from Logan's! So we go to Logan's. (That was fine with me. Any place that keeps bringing warm yeast rolls to your table is a five-star in my book.)

Thanks to the generosity of my parents, I had a crisp, clean $100 bill in my wallet and we wanted to spend it! We decided that we'd live a little and instead of rushing out and buying each other a gift, we'd go out and buy our own. That might sound weird, but we thought it was really fun.

So, after lunch, we run by Target to pick up some stuff and I then I head over to Game Stop. Yes. I bought a video game with my money. I'm a nerd. But it was really cheap and it left me lots of cash leftover.

We hop back in the car and Kristen is driving.

"What do you want to do now?" I ask.

What happened next managed to fill up about four hours. However, to avoid "stealing thunder," I will simply direct you HERE to find out what happened. (Don't worry...I'll eventually fill you all in my experience when I'm able.)

After that, which you can read on Kristen's blog, we finally headed back to pick up the kids from "Sugar's." When we got there, they were tan, tired and ready to see Mom and Dad after a full afternoon of playing outside in the pool.

We gathered them up, packed up their gear and headed home. Finley fell asleep in the car (actually right at her normal bedtime!) Jonah lounged on the couch for about half-an-hour and then went to bed.

It was a great day. (And my new game is awesome.)

My Friday...

When I heard Finley waking up at 6:40 and felt Kristen's elbow digging into my back, I thought,

"Well, I guess it's time to get up."

Got Finley her juice (this kid drinks like a fish!) and headed into the living room. Jonah woke up about ten minutes later. Realized I Hadn't done a "my Friday" post in awhile and figured today would be a great day to start!

Woke Kristen up around 8 and hit the treadmill while she sat sleepily on the couch. Did a couple of miles on the treadmill then grabbed a quick shower.

I don't know why, but it takes the Wrights a really long time to get ready every day. Compound that with the fact that I somehow lost Kristen's makeup bag last night and you get an idea of what we did for a good long while.

We got out of the house and ran some errands - got gas, ran to the bank, and stopped by the Olive Garden, Lufkin's newest restaurant. (New restaurants in Lufkin are quite the experience as most of them are completely packed for their first two weeks because everybody has to check it out. Ah, the joy of a small town.)

Anyway, we beat the lunch crowd and ate a quick lunch. When we were finished, I took the kids out to the car while Kristen paid. As the kids and I passed a table, I heard an elderly man whispering "hermaphrodite" very quickly and passionately. It sounded like Beverly Leslie sitting right there at the table. I grinned, but kept going.

After lunch, we tracked down my mom at her office, where we, of course, had to buy something from the snack machine for the kids. He went home and laid Finley down for her nap.

I laid down for about fifteen minutes before Kristen caught me. I got up to hang out in the living room with Jonah. Pretty soon, Kristen was asleep herself! Woke up Kristen after awhile. She went to go wake Finley up and I thought I'd just lay there on the bed for a minute. At the door, she turned to me and said,

"How long?"

I realized she was asking me how long I wanted to nap. So I said, "Twenty minutes." An hour later I finally got up. Nice!

Once everybody was up, Jonah and I had wrestling match in the living room while Krist took Finley to the trampoline outside. After I had been soundly defeated, Jonah and I went outside to get in on some of the trampoline fun. Jonah, Finley and I all jumped for a good while. We came on in.

After a few minutes, Finley and I decided to make a drink run to Sonic. Jonah grabbed a bath and settled in for family movie night (E.T. on DirectTV.)

The movie was a little longer than we expected, but we let Jonah stay up and watch it. Once it was over, Kristen took him up to his room and he was asleep in no time. I played around on the computer for awhile then went to bed.