One Nation, Under God
One Nation, Under God
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 194
Last week I talked about the things I enjoyed about our vacation to Lake Tahoe and this week I wanted to talk about the things that bummed me out about our trip. I have a problem with simply enjoying vacations. During my 22nd birthday, while I was living in Florida, my mother came down and surprised me with a vacation cruise to the Bahamas. That story is for another day, but it was on that trip that I realized that I don’t relax well. I was hoping that this trip to Lake Tahoe would be different. I did have relaxing times, but I found a way t...
I'm about six years late on this press release, but here it goes. I was hit with a shock wave of news when I found out that a building from my past was imploded in 2012. That building was the Grand Palace Hotel on Canal St. in New Orleans. The year was 2006, and it was roughly fourteen or fifteen months after Hurricane Katrina. During that time I was a freshman in college and it was Mission Week or Saint Louis Christian College's version of Spring Break. It was during this week that I went down...
I like coffee. No, I love coffee! I enjoy it very strong, black, and fresh. Every. Single. Morning. But not this morning because I'm sick. And it hasn't been very fun. I have my Keurig set to warm up at around 5:30 a.m. so that all I have to do is rinse the pod holder and put a new pod in. After that, I press the button and out comes liquid energy. I have grown fond of the Keurig because it is so easy to clean and the amount of caffeine seems to be less than when I brew coffee in my French...
It's not Halloween yet, but I have got a horror story for you! Well, it's not that bad, I'm being a little dramatic. The other night, Susan and I were tuning into Big Brother on CBS in our room, watching the nominations for evictions and something terrible happened. Again, I may be a little too dramatic. As the head of the household was putting up her nominees, I felt something touch my leg. I thought to myself “what was that?” To my surprise and great horror, a brown house spider was sit...
It's hard being addicted to food. Being a premature child, I was pretty skinny until the age of seven. I think I know how that all changed; my late Godmother. When I was about six or seven, it was because of her that I ate my first Big Mac and then five minutes later, my second Big Mac. It was an experience that changed my life forever. She used to take us to all kinds of restaurants, movies, and other fun places. After eating those Big Macs, it seemed that my appetite for junk food grew and tho...
It finally happened. Recently I wrote a three-part series of how I missed out on Taco Bell's Nacho Fries. I can finally say that I had a chance to taste the greatness that was those nacho fries. It wasn't without controversy, but I did it! On a trip to Chicago a couple of weeks ago to say goodbye to my grandfather, we had pulled into a hotel in Dickinson to rest from a day full of driving, when it hit me that there was a Taco Bell right across the street from us and at midnight I was going to...
Another Phillips County Fair has come and gone and what comes next, though exciting in their own rights, sort of depress me. The end of this year’s fair marks the beginning of fall and then winter, and with each year that passes, I wonder how many more I can go through. Living in Montana for the past 22 years has toughened me up, given me thicker skin to deal with the elements (huge portions of Montana biscuits and gravy over the past two decades have also helped with insulation of the bod.) I moved back to my birth town of Missoula from San D...
People often hate or fear what they don't understand. Something that freaks me out is a hairless pet. I guess when you're told your whole life that domesticated animals are furry and cuddly, you get stuck believing that they should always have hair. Trying to prove that I am not “specieist” (racist against hairless pets), I have tried watching videos of hairless cats and even subscribed to a social media page in which they send out videos often. I don't think it worked because I had the hon...
Yes, my boy has glasses. A few weeks ago we took PJ to an optometrist just to make sure he could see well. I should have known that he would have to wear glasses at an early age, given that both his mother and father have had glasses in their childhood. Every year, Susan and I took PJ to the eye doctor but only because we needed glasses. A year ago, he mentioned that he wanted glasses because he was the only one without them. His mother was prepared to buy him non-prescription glasses just so...
We will see how long this lasts. Believe it or not, when I lived in Florida, I tried my hand at jogging. I would huff and puff up and down the street for a two-mile outing while my band was not touring. I would jog to the gym, work out for an hour and a half and then jog back home. Fast forward to today and the only things that I want to do outside is smoke meat or take care of my lawn. Susan and I used to walk around town, but it did not last for me. The reason; mosquitoes. These mosquitoes in...
Back to my quest for Taco Bell fries. So, my first attempt at eating Taco Bell in Billings was mired in what I call “bell lust,” where I lost sight of the mission to eat Taco Bell’s French fry appetizer and ordered a Triple Melt Burri-to, Cheesy Gordita Crunch, and a soft shelled taco. I had already planned on going back to the restaurant the following day, but little did I know that night and following day would be one of the worst that I had in a long time. My allergies had been getting the be...
Several months ago I found out that Taco Bell was going to serve french fries. As many locals know, the closest Taco Bell from Malta is 200 miles away. I have loved Taco Bell since I was in utero. How do I know this? My mother always tells me that when she was pregnant with me, she would crave Taco Bell. The one thing I would change about the Hi-Line would be adding Taco Bell franchises to every town. Instead, I have to wait until I get to Great Falls or Billings to feast on a XXL Grilled Stuft...
Well. It happened. It was a couple of months ago but it happened. I did something that my mother and father did to my brothers and me when I was younger but what I did was so much worse. Around the sixth month of Susan’s pregnancy, we came up with the name Lincoln. It was a name we had been sitting on for a couple of years. Little did I know that I would be working alongside a pup named Langston at the PCN. So naturally, when rubbing Susan’s baby-belly I said to my then unborn son,” How are you doing Langston?” Oh no. Susan let me have it and...
CHANGE A game of catch almost ended in a hospital visit for me. I am kidding but I was in pain for a day or two afterwards. Getting older at the ripe age of thirty is tougher than I thought. I remember when I was younger working at a Walgreen’s close to my childhood home that I first heard of Epsom Salt. I had no idea what that even was, so I asked a customer about it and he explained that it helps with muscle pain. I was a teenager and didn’t understand why this 30-something man needed to soak in salt. I get it now. Last week, I was mee...
Normally when you are a “veteran,” it means that you have experience with a particular career or event and you should know what you are doing. On Friday, March 30, Susan and I welcomed our second child, named Lincoln Dion into the world at 8:35 a.m. He weighed eight pounds, two ounces, and was 19.25 inches long. He cried for about 20 minutes before he calmed down. As I looked down at his hand grabbing my finger for the first time, I had forgotten that the initial crying is good for C-s...
News does travel fast in a small town. Sometimes that news is definitely fake. As of Monday, March 13, I have had no intentions of quitting my job here at the PCN or mov-ing, or anything like that. But twice last week and once the week before citizens of our fine County have approached me about leaving the PCN. Unless I hit the lotto, I think it’s safe to say I am sticking around. I never thought I would be the center of a rumor. Truth is this wasn’t the first time I have been the subject of a rumor here. On more than one occasion, someone has...
This has been a brutal winter and I am glad I have experienced it with you. Going around town last week, I have talked to quite a few people who have told me that this was the roughest winter Montana has had in a long time. Many of those people have told me this has been the roughest winter that they have ever experienced here. Having only lived here for six winters, the winters that I have experienced in Phillips County have been really mild, and this is the first rough winter. This is also...
I was supposed to start my New Year’s Resolution today. Of course, at the time I am writing this, it is the first day of March. I wasn’t in a good spot to start working out again on the first of the year, so I sat on it. Yes, I sat on my keister. The sad thing is that sometime over a year ago I lost my drive to lift weights. I had been work-ing out in a weight room since high school and gradually, I just stopped. Never saw it coming. I guess I liked the prospect of sleeping in as opposed to vol...
I have been getting a kick out of how much PJ enjoys animals. The little guy has been sick for about a week now and that has been really sad to see. We went to the clinic twice last week, because when your three-year-old has thrown up a couple of times without food in his belly, it is concerning. Since he has had to stay home, Susan’s mother has been gracious enough to take care of him. I think he likes his Nana better than us anyways. But every once in a while I would take off from work early to spend time with him, and even though he is s...
I am snobbish about my coffee. My love for the dark, heart pounding drink started when I was young and Starbucks was not yet a household name. In those days, I had no idea how to make a cup of coffee. It was like hot water with a hint of coffee flavoring. Then college came and of course, I found a coffee shop in St. Louis that made a cup of coffee that changed my life. It was at a Starbucks around the same time that I learned about the French press or push down coffee. It is something that I...
My wife and I were on our way to Glasgow to have a look at our unborn child and somehow emergency room situations came up. We were out of town this past fall and a medical emergency came up where a family member had to be rushed to the hospital. Susan and I stayed behind with the family’s children and we noticed that it took the healthcare provider a while to get to the patient. I thought back to times that I had to go to the emergency room in my hometown, a town of about 70,000, and I r...
INFO I cleaned out our medicine cabinet the other day. I remember when Susan and I first became home owners many people saying that you accumulate a lot of stuff over the years. In cleaning out old stuff in a 24-inch cabinet, I found that to be true. In the front were our most recent purchases, being children’s cough and cold medicines as well as my allergy meds. But further back was another story. In the back, I had my various vitamins and minerals, alongside dieting aides and pre-workout c...
PJ has never been a cuddler. Maybe I had been holding him wrong. When you think of a baby, you think of a small human that wants to be held every day. Or at least that has been my interpretation. That was until my wife Susan and I had PJ. I remember trying to hold my newly born son a few years ago and it always seemed like he liked his crib or his blanket more than he liked snuggling with his father. I remember I used to say, “aw, isn’t that nice?,” thinking that I had him in a comfortable spot....
I appreciate the patience. As you all know our editor was out for a few weeks, so I had the chance to gain valuable experience as a short term newspaper editor. I am proud of how our short-handed staff handled things over the weeks. I do realize in being short-handed, there were things that I couldn’t cover as well as normal. I definitely appreciate your patience as readers. That being said, being the editor for a month was a pretty cool experience. It gave me a closer look into the h...
We had a reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving. I have to admit I am not completely a fan of sonograms as far as checking in on developing babies, but we had one the day before Thanksgiving. I get that they like to make sure that the baby is developing, but poking the baby seems invasive. This time I was thankful, regardless of the $400 bill that will hit my bank account. For those that don’t know, we had a miscarriage earlier this year. So for our peace of mind, it was good to see that everything is developing right. This was also the f...
