arena football league

me, jeanette and the boys are going with some friends to a dallas desparados football game this weekend. as big a sports fan as i am, especially football, i have still never even watched an entire arena football game. a friend of ours that we went to college with is also a farm bureau agent, he lives over in marshall, and he scored us some tickets. this is going to be so much fun! i really do hope that we are able to survive the weekend with the boys though. this will be the first time that we have been away from home for a weekend with the boys and i have to say that i'm a little nervous. carson is just now starting to be more comfortable around people that he doesn't know and jackson can kind of be hit and miss with his naps and his eating habits. if nothing else, at least we'll be able to get out of the house for a couple of days and have a little fun. man, i really do love my life...

weather

we had this ridiculous hail storm last night like i have never seen before. being in the insurance business now you really look at storms in a completely different way. i use to love a nice rainy night with a big thunderstorm because it helped me sleep good. now, any time the sky starts clouding up i just cringe. i fielded calls all day today for claims and it was exhausting. insurance is one of those things that you never want to use but you're really glad you have it when you need it. you just better make sure that you have a good company that pays claims good. lucky for me i can proudly say that there is only one other company that pays claims almost as good as us...too bad for them their rates are ridiculously higher than ours. anyway, hopefully the weather has passed and we won't be seeing any more like that for some time.

baby shower

our good friends cilla and jason are having TWINS after trying for some time now just as we did and we are so excited for them. jeanette along with a long list of other ladies hosted a baby shower for them this weekend at our house and there was a HUGE turn out! whenever me and carson left to go over to her dad's house there were at least 50 people or so. they evidently had a lot of fun and even more importantly jason and cilla really racked up on a lot of stuff. and, the great thing is, they still have 2 more showers being thrown by other people! they're going to need all the stuff they can get. we're finding out more and more every day how much STUFF these little munchkins need. if you know cilla and jason and want to send them a gift shoot me an email or contact me through myspace and i'll tell you how to get a hold of them or get you an address to send it to them at. if you know them then you know how much of a blessing they are to everyone they touch and it's always nice to be able to be a blessing back to people like that who always give so much to everyone else. like i said, just shoot me an email or contact me through myspace and i'll tell you how to contact them...if for nothing else to even tell them congratulations. my email is mattdogg80@hotmail.com

3 Day Weekend

you really can't beat self-employment. when it's easter weekend and you want to take 3 days off; you just do it. there's not much like having a job that allows you to work hard and play harder and reap all the benefits. well, i think i'm gonna go hop in bed and try to get as much sleep as possible because we have a lot of playing to do this weekend!

gym

that's right, we finally did it. after talking about it since we got married 8 years ago we finally joined the gym. i have to say that it was totally worth it too. i feel so much more energy and healthier. i even had a friend of mine at an award's banquet last friday ask me if i had lost some weight. and the answer is no...i just re-proportioned a good bit of it. i've been working out at least 3 days a week or more and so has jeanette and she joined a yoga class that she loves. this is defintely one of the best things that we could have ever done. we've spent countless dollars on insuring that we become unhealthy and it's finally time that we start combatting that with something. we go april 1st to do a body comp and full work up to find out how healthy or unhealthy we really are. i'm anxious to see how the results to that turn out.

unhealthy

i am noticing more and more how unhealthy i am getting. i am so out of shape and i eat the most horrible things. don't get me wrong, i'm not one of these crazed health fanatics that run around hugging trees and condemning all who eat fast food to a firey eternity. all that being said, it is still very obvious to me how horribly i eat and don't exercise at all. this has really been bugging me lately as i have gone to put on an old shirt or pair of pants or shorts that i love but haven't worn in a long time only to find them too tight to even come close to buttoning. i have a closet full of perfectly good dress shirts that i can't wear a tie with anymore because i can't get the top button to even touch the other side of the shirt. i think we're going to join the gym this weekend. i've got to do something before this gets out of hand.

house

we have been married for 8 years now and have always wanted our own house but, are just now in a position to be able to start putting back money to save for one. i think it's a little ironic that we're at the point in life where most people are too strapped to put anything back for something like that, having 2 young babies and all. that's kind of the way God has always worked things out with us though. he seems to give us the biggest blessings when we least expect them, or when we think it's impossible to make happen. we would like to be trying to get in a house around this time next year or so. i've always wanted a really big extravagant house but, after thinking it over for a while i would much rather have a normal house and have enough put back to be able to retire at age 50 or so. as soon as i go get my securities license this year i'm going to set up a couple of retirement funds for us so that we can be able to do just that. hot springs village sounds like a good little retirement spot don't ya think?

taxes

it's that time of year again, and i still haven't done my taxes yet. i have tried and tried to get somewhere to do them and haven't been able to. you would think that this would be the year that i would have been waiting in line to get them done; i have 2 new children and a wife that didn't work last year. man, i hope that this is going to be a good return. has anyone else taken care of this yet or are you procrastinating too? let me know, i want to hear about it.

jet lag

i got home from jackson, ms friday evening around 5:30pm. it was great to finally be home but man i was so tired all weekend. it seemed like every time that i sat down i would fall asleep. sunday afternoon nett was going to wal-mart (which i hate doing) and i jumped up to go with her on my own free will because i thought that i was fixing to pass out! finally after getting up and around i snapped out of it but man, i rarely get that tired from doing seemingly nothing. i think i'm fixing to go take a nap now before i go to bed...

coming home

i leave tomorrow to go back home. i've been in jackson all week and i really miss nett and the boys. i feel like i'm missing out on so much being gone. i know it's only a week, but a week seems like a year! and what really sucks is there is supposedly a chance of winter precipitation in dallas and texarkana tomorrow. i really hope that doesn't delay me getting home because i don't think that i could endure being gone any longer. not to mention that carson's birthday party is saturday at noon and there is no way in the world that i am going to miss that! well, i'm going to get a shower and get to bed so i can be fully rested tomorrow. pray for my trip home so that i will make it there safe and in a timely manner.

jackson

i leave sunday morning to fly out for another week of training. i'll be in jackson, ms this time. it's really tough being far away from home when you have 2 babies under a year old. especially when the name of the town that you're going to is a constant reminder of what is back home waiting on you. i can't wait to be done with this part of my training so i can be home. i shouldn't have to leave for training again for about another 6 months or so. on a positive note though, i couldn't love my job anymore than i do right now. not only do i work for a great company but, their rates pretty much blow everyone else out of the water so that makes it easy to get new business. i hope they are able to keep it this way.

training

i'm in waco, tx this week for training with farm bureau. it's going to be really hard being away from nett and the boys, but it will definitely pay off in the long run we know. it just doesn't make it easier being away from them for this long. oh well, i guess i need to get off of here so i can get back to kicking my roommate's butt in madden 08...what, you didn't think i would come all the way down here and not bring my xbox 360 did you???PPPSSSHHHHH, please!