Dayv's Place

2009-08-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

We are back from our first family vacation, and I must say it was a total success!! 4 days in a Montana paradise followed by a trip to Silverwood theme park in Idaho. You don't much better than that!

I must say the fishing was much harder than I had expected but I did manage to land 2 of the 5 I hooked.

But it was definitely worth it!!

Apart from the awesome fishing, the ranch was everything we'd hoped!
quiet, prestine, and all wilderness. Poor little A got bored about halfway through the second day. She was expecting non-stop action and events to keep her occupied. We had to reexplain that it was a time of relaxation and not an amusement park. I can't say I blame her though. At 12 you haven't exactly a roughenough life to need time to relax and just chill.

"Man" points...

2009-08-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

So it's two days till I take the family on vacation in the hills of Montana. Going on vacation may be a common occurrence for some, but you have to realize that we have been married 13 years, and this is the first real family vacation we have had. Now we manage to get to theme parks, day trips and the like. But this is the first planned out deliberate vacation. I am stoked for several obvious reasons, but especially because I feel it's the "man" of the house responsibility to provide for his family. I feel providing for your family also includes taking them away on trips like this. With my job and the fact that I am deployed or TDY (temporary Duty Yonder; a fancy military term that basically means I have to travel with my plane and work on it where ever it lands), and the fact that we were overseas for so long and, (contrary to popular belief we military folks don't get paid a whole lot to do what we do), I haven't been able to provide for my family in this way. One more tick on my "Man" checklist. I'm slow but I'm getting there!

Anyhoo, back to the matter at hand. We are off to Montana. Don't know much about Montana, other than it's beautiful, and where we are going is secluded and quiet! That is exactly what we are looking for. We want the great outdoor, fishing, wildlife, and an absolute deprivation of technology! No cell phones, internet, TV (even though we don't have TV at home) nothing but moose, elk, and trout, and me in lederhosen,

ok so maybe no on the lederhosen, but the animals will be present.

We are staying in a log cabin and plan to do as little planning as possible.
It is sure to be a great time and I will have the satisfaction of a job well done!

A litte history...Part 2

2009-08-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

OK so where was I? So there we were married after a 1 month friendship. Now to make things interesting the Air Force decided that we would best serve our country on a cozy little island called Japan. It's worth noting at this point that I had Japan on my dream sheet, (for you civilians that's like a transfer request to be relocated.) Well the day I decided to go in and remove Japan from my dream sheet,(cause I had decided that that was the last place I wanted to be stationed), was the day I was notified that I would be moving there. So what's the score now... ahhh yes, Air Force: 2 Dayv: 0. Well in October 1996 we left ended up spending 3 1/2 years on the main island of Japan. This is where our marriage would be tested the worst. The pacific is like Disneyland for adults. Any nasty, weird, grotesque, debauchery filled fantasy you have can be fulfilled there. It was rough but we made it through.

On the much lighter and wonderful side of all the yuck of the orient, our daughter Alyssa was born in 1997. What an absolute joy she has been. Now 12 she is beautiful, smart, creative, musically talented, is a great actress and singer, (can't dance to save her life,( a trait I pray she carries with her all the way to prom)),still it's hard to believe any of my DNA made it to the egg, but needless to say I am as proud as can be!

In 2000 we received orders to Royal Air Force Mildenhall (better known as RAF Mildenhall) in the UK. Now we actually requested to go there and actually got it.... AF:2 Dayv:1

We spent 6 glorious years there. I don't call them glorious because the UK is a great place to live, in fact I pretty much hated it there. I apologize if I offend any British readers or those sympathetic to the UK. In fact there are plenty of places in the US that I hate as well, but you see all those places make up about the same square mileage as the UK so I am inclined to have to hate the whole thing.... its a math thing... anyways, I call it glorious cause we managed to make some of the closest, deepest friendships i will ever have in my meager existence! It is also where I rediscovered God. So basically I found friends, I found God, I found Godly Friends... see a pattern? So all in all it was a good assignment.

In 2006 we got, to date, our last set of orders. This time to Fairchild Air Force base in Spokane, Wa. Yeah I never heard of it either (had to Google that sucker)... that's 3 points now for the Air Force. We love Washington, and the bass fishing is pretty good too.

Well lets see, it's been 14 years now since this crazy ride began. Ups, downs, lefts, rights, pretty much a normal life and marriage. I wouldn't trade it for the world....

2009-08-04T21:42:00.000-07:00

Today I was left asking 2 questions.... Who is this Dairy Queen person I've heard so much of, Has anyone seen this Baskin Robins fellow. I Ask these questions because today I had an ice cream experience that wash my mind clean of any possible recollection of the the other two. Elizabeth and I stop in at a Cold Stone Creamery today. Words cannot express the true beauty of the flavor filled, ice cold, waffle cone wrapped gluttonous frivolity that awaits your taste buds!! The only way I can sum it up is....NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM!!!!!!! If you haven't been, I say go, if you are on a diet however, run away, run far away.

23 Minutes in Hell...

2009-08-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

I just read a really interesting book. It is called '23 Minutes in Hell'.

It is in my nature to be skeptical of folks that claim miraculous visions and things of the sort. I am always wary of those who use "Godly" encounters to make a buck, ya know? So when I picked this book up and read that this guy was sent to hell for a brief period of time so he could share his experience with the rest of us, my initial reaction was "yeah, whatever", however I know that nothing is beyond God's capabilities and imagination so I figured I'd give it a go.

I think what compelled me most of his story was that it was a rather unexciting read. This helped to feel that he was genuine. He wasn't super descriptive, no big fancy wording, you just get the feeling that there is no imagination in this story at all. This made me lean less to the idea that it was made up adventure of fiction, and more towards a simple recounting of a particular event. Sort of like reading back the minutes of a meeting, "dry yes, but these are the facts", kind of read. He also overloads you with scriptural references that validate the things he saw, now that always helps. Call me simple but I can't argue with scripture, and this guy is on point there. It's a short read, (which is perfect for me), like I said just the facts, and no fluff. I recommend it to any one who questions the existence and/or to what degree Hell exists. Heck if reading aint your thing I even found a video of him and his wife give their testimony.....

23 Minutes In Hell Reference Edition - Click here for more home videos

New Kutless album due out October 20th!

2009-08-03T12:06:00.001-07:00

New Kutless album due out October 20th!
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A little history...Part 1

2009-08-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

Not really sure if anyone will actually read this thing, but just in case i figure it is only right to tell a little about myself.

My name is Dayv, I am 35 years of age. After high school I went to a tech school in Phoenix for electro-mechanical drafting. I didn't become exceptionally good at drafting, but I did get really good at using drugs. I mean I excelled at it. To the point that I dropped out of school 6 weeks before graduation and found myself completely broke, homeless and lost. I never ended up on the streets however, some how I always had a friend that had a place for me to crash. Never would of guessed God was looking out for me at the time. then one afternoon in 1993 I had borrowed a friends car and was cruising around down town. I passed the mall and saw this humongous sign for the military recruiters offices on the wall of the mall. I mean this thing was stupid big, much larger than it should of been.... well my mind clicked on to auto pilot, cause I had no intention of joining anything, unless they were having a coke snorting contest somewhere, and I pulled right in to check out what surprises awaited me behind the ginormous sign.
Like a zombie I marched into the Air Force recruiters office and stated I wanted to join. The poor guy tried his best to fumble through his prepared script on how to sell me on the Air Force, but I had already decided to join so I kept cutting him off asking where I needed to sign. Guess he wasn't prepared for such an easy sale.

Well needless to say in January of '94 I shipped off to basic training, which by the way was nothing like the 'Full Metal Jacket" movie made it out to be... at the end of it all I received orders for Moody AFB, in southern Georgia, which was perfect since I requested to be stationed in California... Air Force: 1 Dayv: 0

Well again I missed God's intervention. What I didn't see coming was the fact that in Georgia was a wonderful woman that would change my life forever. About a year after I arrived in Georgia I met Elizabeth. It was actually completely by accident that we met. I was, well we'll say "seeing" this girl and she invited me to her apartment for dinner. That's when I met her roommate. Although "seeing" the girl was good fun, Elizabeth and I had become fast friends. About a month into our friendship, Elizabeth shared that she was having financial woes and needed to move back to her moms in Tennessee. I was shocked and saddened. One night I had an epiphany. "Let's get married", I said. WHAT WAS I SAYING?!?!?!?! It was out before I realized it. Marriage is big and here I was throwing it out like I was suggesting a place to eat for dinner. Well as shocking as it was to ask the question it was even more shocking the reply I received. Ya see Elizabeth has great insight and can read people very well, it truly is a gift. She already knew that I was going to ask and with a little hesitation she accepted. So that's us married after a month of knowing each other. Can't say its been roses and sweets the whole way, I am just glad God knew what he was doing, cause I didn't have a clue.....

Ok gotta get my day started so I will call this part 1 and continue later....

Hello

2009-08-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

My wife Elizabeth has been blogging for quite some time now and I have always thought that it would be neat to blog as well. So here it goes. Now if I can figure out how to work this crazy thing....