Merry Christmas

From 2009_12_06

Go Kart 2.0

Well we were at it again. The first go kart had wheels from old bikes, and that one didn't last very long. the axles couldn't handle it. Well I saw these two wheel chairs on the side of the road being thrown away... and of course I didn't see trash I saw an opportunity. So here we are .. the updated version of the go kart. Thanks to Chuck coming over the next day we made some modifications that really help. It is totally push and gravity powered, however Caleb is always interested in some kind of motor being put on this thing (not now, but we'll see). The kids learned real fast about some simple steering principles. When you are going fast you don't have to turn as much. Caleb's friend Reed almost flipped it over on the very first run. Caleb almost hit a car and discovered that we need to work on our braking system a little bit.

It has been great fun.

Traveling Champ

Ethan participated in a neat project where we came home with "Traveling Champ" and we had to allow him to join our family on whatever adventures we were doing and then journal about in Champ's journal. It was neat to read to Ethan at bedtime the journal entries of his classmates who had Champ before us.

Thanksgiving

Lego League

This year at Lego League we really did good! I believe in the robot competition we came in 12th place! It was very exciting. I am very proud of the boys. They worked well as a team and were very encouraging to each other. We scored really well early on so it was fun watching the kids study the leader board seeing if we were going to end up in the top 10.

I was really proud of our robot and our team. Most of these other teams built these elaborate contraptions to get over or around some obstacles, our robot looked like a tractor with treads and we just rolled right over barriers. While practicing so many other kids from other teams would watch ours go over the barriers and they would ask "Can you do that?" - I was so proud of out team thinking outside the box.

Haunted House

Well inspired by a book I read and really enjoyed. We turned our garage into a Haunted House.

It was incredible. I had so much fun working with my friend Graham and the kids setting it up. My hope was that it would be a fun simple way of connecting with neighbors. We even had a little bucket out raising money for Heifer International and we collected almost $20 (I think we bought a flock of ducks - I don't remember right now).

I told the older kids we couldn't make it so scary that the little bitty trick or treaters would be scared. We made stuff like peeled grapes for eyes, slime for guts, cold noodles for brains and baby carrots for fingers... all ingredients for some gross experiment or something.
The kids in the neighborhood started giving tours to all the other kids who showed up. They would even wander down the street inviting people to come. At one point there was about 15-20 adults in my driveway with who knows how many kids running around in my garage. Everyone was talking and having fun. I was excited to meet some new people in our community and also just visit with neighbors.

I am now looking forward to next Halloween.

PawPaw and the Boys

It was grandparents day at Ethan's school and PawPaw got to come up. We had a great time. After school we went out to Lincoln parish park to grill burgers and explore the woods. We stayed too late (forgot that the park closes at dark). We almost were forced to camp out. We had to call the police to get the code to open the gate and at first it didn't work. It was a great adventure.

Get Whole Video

We did a sermon series at Trinity about healing. This is a parody making fun of all the ways the world says we can be made whole and feel complete.

This was really fun to make! I hope you enjoy.

Ethan Kindergarten

Ethan's Birthday

I am finally getting caught up on the blog.

Gulf Shores Trip

We stayed at Granbobbie's house on the intercoastal waterway. We enjoyed her great cooking (Caleb did pretty good trying new stuff).

From GranBobbie and Murphys

We got a tour of her garden.

We went to the beach. Caleb was like a little fish swimming out in the water. He was out treading water without thinking about it. He loved diving down and seeing the fish. He even touched a big fish diving down a couple of times. Ethan and Caleb loved trying out the boobie boards and making sand castles.

We went fishing off the deck and Caleb and Ethan caught a bunch of fish and the big ones got away. Everytime the big ones broke the surface of the water our line broke! It was awesome! The kids were going nuts!

We drove to Florida's Highest Point (not very impressive), but we have knocked our 2nd highest points of the 50 states off our list. (We are trying to climb a bunch of the highest points)

From Florida High Point

From Florida High Point

We also played 2 rounds of putt putt at Pirate's Island. We play every time we go down there. It can get pretty competative.

It was a great trip! I even took a nap!

Apollo 11 real time Re-enactment

http://wechoosethemoon.org/

loaded with pictures and realtime data (from 40 years ago) recreating the first lunar landing.

"It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."
...and my brother will get there with less stops at the gas station than me!
Check this out.



Chuck was on the news the other night.

Ethan saves the snails

After our first rain in what seems like a long while, the snails came climbing out of the ground, and Ethan started collecting them to save them from drowning.

Create your own Nerf Dart Gun

Caleb, Ethan and Daddy have begun modifying Nerf Dart Guns (watch this video to see one of the places we got some modification ideas from). We did a similary mod to the video and doubled the distance to about 60 feet when we added rubber bands to it.

We tried doing an extended copper barrell, but that turned out to be a failure. We went from 60 feet to about 2 feet (if the dart even left the barrel). The diameter of the barrell was just a little to big.

Well here a home made gun from scratch. We are extremely pleased with the distance! Caleb shot the longest shot so far almost 300 feet! (288 feet stepping it off). Slow reload, not real accurate, cumbersome to opperate (if you are in a battle), but the distance!!!

Finally - Steve get's a hair Cut

My hair was finally 8 inches long so I could give it for Pantene's Beautiful Lengths to make a wig for a woman who lost their hair because of cancer.

It may be summer, but my head feels much cooler.

Pool Time at The Murphy's House

Alligator Park

Pool Time at the Hynson's

Fun at a Texas Park

Six Flags

Hair

Well, the goal of not complaining about growing the hair out... well it isn't that easy.  We just measured tonight.  I am at about 7.5 inches average(it kind of depends on what part of my head you measure the hair from).  So hopefully a month from now I will be able to shave my head and donate the hair.

I'M READY!

Boys will be Boys (and they like to dance)

Caleb and Ethan trying to catch tadpoles.

Caleb spent his report card money that he got from a contract he signed with Pops on Dance Dance Revolution.

Family Date night.

We had a great family date night last night.  We surprised Jill and we had the boys all dressed up in Sunday clothes when she got home and we took her out for dinner. Caleb ate tacos last night at El Jaritos!!!

Ethan's Biking adventures continue

Ethan can now get started on his own and stop on his own.  These are important skills (especially the stopping).

FPU 2009

From FPU SUnday Night class 2009

I can't begin to tell you how excited I am. We just finished this years Financial Peace Class. This years class was awesome! These people got serious about getting control over their financial lives. They sold stuff, they got extra jobs, they saved money. It was amazing the diversity of people we had in the group. I loved the younger people in the class learning this stuff. Knowing if they really learned and applied this stuff their future is going to be great!

We have a bunch of people that took the class that agreed to help teach it next year because it made such a big difference in their lives. They are looking forward to sharing it with others.

Alright here are the numbers! When the class started we asked everyone to turn in a card (anonymously) with how much debt they had NOT including the mortgage.

We had a total of 28 families that started with us in the beginning.
They had a total debt of $916,344.00

Tonight when we finished the class we gathered the numbers again to see if we made an improvement.
21 families turned in numbers at the end. They had only $524,072.00 in debt (not including the house)

That is awesome! I am so proud of these people!

The Hope video I've been working on.

Go here to see some of the other videos.

Big day for Ethan

Ethan's 1st Lost tooth

Ethan lost his first tooth and completed a 50 peice puzzle.

Ethan can do a puzzle all by my self

Debt Ski

Town Hall For Hope

Last night we had about 50 people come to Trinity last night (not bad, considering how well I promoted it) for the largest ever web simulcast Town Hall for Hope. It was great. Dave Ramsey spoke for about 30 minutes about the economy and put where we are in terms of history into context. It was fascinating having my understanding put into perspective. Then he took questions from people all over the country.

He ended with a call to action and gave everyone 3 things to do in dealing with the fear about recession.
1. Get up and Take Action
2. Stop Listening To Looser talk
3. Start Giving

The whole thing has been exciting when Trinity first signed up they were anticipating about 500 locations simulcasting the event.  By the first night of testing there were over 6000 locations (glad I wasn't one of the tech guys pulling this off!  (Praise God for the people that did!)). The first night of testing was full of bad lip sync, buffering and loosing the stream all together, but I guess when you provide10 times the number of streams you are going to have issues.  Well they got it all working and it was neat to see momentum pickig up for the event.  We were told early on that Fox Business Network was going to broadcast about 30 minutes of the program and if the webcast failed then that could be one of the many backups they provided.  Well as the response grew.  Fox Business decided to broadcast the full 1.5 hours commercial free! I'm glad we were able to participate.

The Latest Adventure

Well we went down to Alexandria to hang with Maw Maw and PawPaw. We planned a fishing trip on the Red River to catch catfish.... we ended up on a little island on the side and we did more adventuring than fishing. It was great fun.

My first Double

Jill and I have been "getting ready" for the Triathlon on May 3rd.  Jill has been doing more running.  I have been doing more swimming.  Our goal is just to finish.  

Today, I was excited though, because I did my first 'double'. At least that is what I heard it is called.  I rode my bike for 15 miles and then got off the bike and ran 3.  I know the bike took me an hour (no matter what I do my average speed is 15mph on the bike), but I didn't see how long the 3 miles took.  I am just excited I was able to do it.  

Ethan Russ House Visit

Ethan went to the Russ House Retirement home with his class to sing to the residents and then had an Easter Egg hunt.  Here are all the pictures from the whole class

Town Hall for Hope

Trinity is hosting this simulcast event. I am helping get this together since I lead all the FPU stuff at my church. I am really excited about doing this.  You need to check out if there is an site near you hosting this thing.

Caleb's Swim A Thon

Caleb Michael Murphy is turning into a little fish!  I was so proud of him tonight.  He got into that water and started swimming... and kept swimming.  He did 17 full laps!  That is over a mile (15 laps is a mile)!  That is much more than his Dad has ever done!

It was a fun night, they got to play and swim with these glow bracelets and eat pizza and gatoraid. Everyone was given 2 hours to swim and the coach set a goal of 15 laps for Caleb's group.  Caleb took the challenge head on!  He swam a bunch, got out for a minute ate a couple of cookies and jumped back in.

It has been great to watch him improve. Tonight he had the best swimming form he has had so far.  Pretty soon he is going to be lapping his Dad.

Thanks for everyone who donated to Caleb's swim a thon.  It was great fun and it sounds like they raised a great deal of money for the team.

Hair ROUND 2

well, This is the results of Round 2 with Growing my hair out to donate a wig for someone with cancer.  

We are now at about 5 inches and if I do Beautiful lengths again they need 8 inches.  I have a ways to go.

...and I thought I could juggle...

here is a video of my friend Tim Foreman showcasing his juggling skills:

Great Day

Well, after cleaning the house the adventure began.  The Murphy boys (including Daddy) needed a day like this.  Caleb and his buddies Nicholas and Reed along with Ethan and I headed to the woods by our house.  

The afternoon ended up being filled with finding frogs, chasing ellusive crawfish, finding a potential future camping site, climbing trees, exploring corners of the woods yet explored, splashing in the creek, tracking deer, digging and exploring holes, identifying various animal poop, sliding down the zip line, getting muddy and having plain old fun.

This picture was taken with my cell phone on the way out of the woods for a water break.  The boys: Caleb, Nicholas and Reed just locked arms and started talking about what a great adventure and how they were such good friends.  It was a wonderful moment.  

Jill's Birthday

We had a great time for Jill's Birthday.  We ran our first 10k in Shreveport. Jill ran it in 1 hour 5 minutes, while I ran it in 1 hour and 9 minutes. Our friend Jamie Joyce was there too.  I am so proud of Jill, she did awesome!  I got my first real muscle cramp about halfway. Ouch!  It was still a great deal of fun! They served hot rama noodle soup afterwards, and it was good! Later in the day we had chick fil a for lunch. 

We made a stop at the Libbey glass factory.  Jill had told me all about it in the past, but I had never been.  We bought some new glasses, and some small juice cups to go with the new dinner set we had ordered. And to top it off the bowls and plates we ordered for Jill just happened to arive on her birthday just that afternoon.

I learned that Jill's favorite cake is marble cake. After a quick trip to Super 1 Foods I got busy making cake, but you can't put icing on the cake when it is too hot.   We let it cool for a while, but just not enough.... the top layer kept sliding around.  So much for having the cake that looked good and tasted good.  Atleast 1 out of 2 were good.

It was a great day and for a couple of months I get to be married to an "older woman".  I am so thankful for her and I am thrilled I get to celebrate many more of these birthdays with her.

Happy 35th Birthday Jill!

Financial Peace Update #2

Alright the numbers are in!

Sunday Night Class(16 families) total debt (not including mortgage): $478,878.45

Wednesday Night Class (13 families) total debt (not including mortgage): $471,469.00

Total debt not including mortgage for these 29 families:$950,347.45

FPU update

Well, we are leading Financial Peace University again.  This will be the 3rd year we have lead it so far.  Each year we are averaging about 28 families. This year (like last year) we are split up into two classes, a Sunday night and a Wednesday night.  I have some wonderful people helping me lead the classes: Richard Raue, Tracie and Jared Rugg, Becky and Todd Clark, Jennifer Carter, and my brother Chuck and Mary Katherine.  

Every year on the third week of the class we pass out note cards and ask everyone to (anonymously) put how much debt they have NOT including mortgage debt. So credit cards, car loans, student loans, and the like... Every time we do this I find myself getting emotional and I am reminded why I am doing this.  Out of the Sunday night class we had 15 families(of 18 total) turn in a card with their number on it and our Sunday night was: $444,878.45.  Now I know a number of you math geeks are probably dividing and doing the average right now, but that really doesn't give a good picture of the situtation.  There were basically 4 categories of numbers turned in.  A few people had written down a proud ZERO, another group wrote numbers between $4,000 - $8,000, then the next group was in the $35,000 to $45,000, then there was the last group that turned in the big numbers.  Knowing that 15 families combined are only $66,000 short of half a million dollars in debt is my big reminder why I get so passionate about helping people learn to take care of their money.  

The other thing I am excited about is the number of young people that are taking the class this year. I love the idea that I might be helping someone younger avoid some financial mistakes and pitfalls. 

Caleb's 10th Birthday

Well, he has officially crossed over into the double digits.  We had a great time at the swim party.  We walked all the boys over to the pool straight after school on Friday.  Everyone had a great time throwing those spongy wet balls all over the place.  One of the kids accidentally hit the life guard square in the head.  It was funny.  

Jill's mom remembered the camera (thank goodness, because I forgot).I downloaded some of the pictures from shutterfly and here they are above.  If you want to see more... go here:  http://calebs10bday.shutterfly.com  

Free TV adventures

Here is the new resource I found for messing with free digital over the air waves TV.  I am probably having more fun messing with this stuff than anyone else in my house.  But I found TVFOOL this is another great resource to figuring out what antenna, what channels, and all kinds of fun with TV reception.  I am anxious to find out if the PBS station is going to change the power it is broadcasting at, after the Feb 17 switch.  That is the one station I haven't been able to get digital yet that I really want.  I may have to go through some extreme messures if after the 17th I still can't get it.  

Also I found you can download to google earth the broadcast range of each TV station in your area to see a map of what channels should be receivable at your house.  This picture is the signal from KNOE which is the CBS station from Monroe.  

Even with this info I still don't think I have it all figured out yet. There seems to be some channels that I am not getting that I should.  (I am on the fringe of the signal... but still) The only major things I have left to do is add height and an amplifier... 

We shall see.

Let's RACE!!!

Caleb, Ethan and I finished the GoKart.  I am sure after a couple of trips down the hill or around the neighborhood we will be going back to Lowes to get fresh parts.  This isn't an engineering marvel by some standards, but the Murphy boys are pretty proud and excited.

Go Kart Time

Caleb made the request a long while ago, and I just let the idea simmer in my head.  Now he originally had a different idea in mind, but we are working on creating an answer to his request. 

Pretty soon it will be: 

GO KART time 

on Zephyr Lane.  

With parts from a bunch of old bikes, some scrap wood, and a couple of trips to Lowes for hardware we are almost done.

Go Kart 2009

While it is only gravity or push powered, it should make for some exciting times on Zephyr Lane.  We will probably be wearing out the kid's shoes pretty fast since their feet will be the only breaks on the thing.

We will have to keep you posted.

Tri or not to Tri

Jill and I are about to embark on a new challenge this year.  We are going to participate in at least one triathlon this year.  I feel like I could ride my bike well enough, and with a little training running 3-6 miles shouldn't be to hard  (we aren't trying to win a triathlon - just trying to do a triathlon). But I have discovered I swim like an angry monkey flailing his arms.  I have always thought of myself as someone who could swim decently (most of my experience being in someones backyard pool or the Gulf of Mexico just goofing off).  Now I try swimming a lap in the Tech  pool and I can't hardly make it from one side to the other without thinking I am going to die.  How did Michael Phelps do it?

I am experiencing the same fear and excitement I had when I was getting ready to do the MS150 two years ago.  We have a long way to go, but I am excited about getting into shape enough to do this. 

Adventures in Free TV

Welcome to the Digital revolution. My latest project has been to set an antenna to get free digital TV.  It all started when my brother set up an antenna in his attic and got one of those digital converter boxes.  I was at his house, saw the picture - UNBELIEVABLE.  With the digital TV broadcast  picture... no more "snow" and static. I was looking at a picture quality that seemed to rival someone who had cable or a dish.  I couldn't get over the fact that this was free.  So the hunt was on. 

First element was to get the converter box.  Don't forget your $40 government "gift card". Went to walmart and after only paying taxes on a $40 box came home hooked it up.  Well.  Very disappointed. Nothing!  It couldn't find a single channel.  We had been watching "fuzzy" analog, but the signal wasn't strong enough for the converter box to pick up any channels.  The homeowner before us had dish network and an small outdoor antenna that we were using.  I tried aiming the antenna, tracing wires out, eliminating extra spitters, and doing anything to fix it.  Nothing.

Decided not to give up. Especially after Stephen Greene mentioned buying a radio shack indoor/outdoor ampified antenna, and he was amazed by the picture. I did a little research.  Check out http://www.antennaweb.org/ for a start.  Found out that I need a big antenna! Well, I first tried what Stephen did.  Well, I tried the antenna inside.... nothing.  I tried the antenna outside...  Ahh first sign of hope.  After a little bit of aiming.  We got CBS and the CW and Fox.  I still wanted NBC and I kept hearing about other station from my brother (and a few others).  And I really wanted to get the Louisiana PBS station.  So higher we go.  I mount it on the chimney.  Little better.  But I wanted more. 

So the saving money part. $100 directional antenna(Channel Master CM 3020 Deep Fringe Advantage TV Antenna). When this online order comes in I run to Lowes to get a pole to put it on.  And up it goes.  Ahh even better.  Problem.  For me to get Arkansas PBS stations (yes I said Arkansas) I have to aim the antenna North-ish.  Then to get other stations.  I have to aim it East.  I have found one sweet spot where I get.  8-1,8-2, 10-1, 10-2, and 14-1. Which are the major ones we enjoy, but I kept having to go outside and twist the pole to reaim the antenna. 

One night I was all excited to watch Heroes.  The signal was beautiful, I was really into the show when the wind picked up. I realized then I installed a weather vane and not an antenna.  Since I set it up so I could rotate the antenna by hand to get different channels, so could the wind rotate the antenna.  I went outside about 12 times during heroes to fix it.  Frustrating.  So the idea of a antenna rotator came to mind.  

Jill and I got a new a 26" LCD tv for our bedroom.   Well, the reception on in for the Digital channels are much better than the converter box.  (Could be the length of the wire, the splitter or the TV itself - don't know yet). We could get 10-1 and 10-2 (KTVE NBC and KTVE's live dopler radar station - it's kind of like the silent local version of the weather channel without all the commentary) in the bedroom, when the converter box said "weak signal". This sure gave us a hunger to replace the living room TV... but that will have to wait for us to save some money. The issue was still the same and I knew Jill woundn't appreciate me sending the kids outside in the winter to reaim the antenna all the time.

$90 rotator at Backus True Value and now I can aim it and hopefully the wind won't aim it for me.  I am still experimenting with aiming it and finding sweetspots for all the channels.  But we are getting somewhere!

This has been a great fun project for me.  I apparently love challenges like this. I haven't been able to rest until I figured it out and even during the frustrating moments.... it's been fun to solve and learn how this stuff works.

So free has TV cost me a little over $200. I am a little jeaulous, because others have gotten more channels that live just a few miles away for much cheaper. But I have enjoyed the adventure. The only thing I might look into getting is an mast mounted pre-amplifier.  I got a cheap one from Lowes and I am taking it back.  It didn't work.  

The only other "tweak" I might do is raise up the antenna another 5 feet.  When I put the rotator on I had to lower it because I was by myself installing it and had to remove a section.  I think if I raise it back up and point it west I will be able to get a shreveport station or two.