When We Are Not Good Stewards

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior.  How is everyone doing?  I pray that y'all find this blog in good health and spirits.  We are doing pretty good despite all the rain we have had.  We have lots of work to do around the house this Saturday because of all the rain we got in May.  Our front yard and driveway flooded.  We have a small stream that runs across our driveway and front yard and it turned into a river.  The small bridge even floated away and I had to use t-posts to hold it in place. This Saturday I will work on the stream and mow the yard.

In July of 2010, I had to ask myself, "IS GOD PLEASED WHEN A PERSON DOESN'T USE THEIR GIFTS TO SUPPORT THEIR FAMILY?" (http://goo.gl/cZrPHB).  In recent months, I had to ask myself this same question. Now, things are different than they were in 2010.  We are not on government assistance, we are making a few dollars per hour more than in 2010, and I am driving trucks, but we are again living paycheck to paycheck. I quit Werner a year ago so I could be home with my wife and children.  I figured I could get a local driving job that would pay me enough to support my family.  Unfortunately, unless you are in a special driving career (oil, gas, ect.) local trucking companies do not pay that much.  I thought we could make it on the pay that Ball Pipe and Supply paid without assistance, but we couldn't do it.  As I have posted in the July 2010 blog, God as given me a great gift for me to glorify Him and support my family.  It is up to me to use that gift the way He wants me to.  I must do His will, not mine.  Being that we are struggling again, I believe that I am not using God's gifts for me correctly.  It is obvious to me that I must go Over The Road.  

I filled out an online application that went to many companies on Wednesday night and first thing Thursday morning my phone was ringing off the hook.  I know, my young readers are not going to understand that statement since phones today don't hang on hooks.  I got over 30 calls from companies wanting me to drive for them.  Two of the companies was Werner and CRST wanting me to come back.  CRST did interest me because I did like them and I made real good money with them.  When I drove for them, I made over $1000 a week.  I also trained knew driver, got lots of awards, and I also worked in the Oklahoma City safety office.  When they contacted me, they wanted me back real bad and made me an offer that I couldn't refuse.  Of course, I didn't tell them that they already had me.  So, I sealed the deal and will start driving for them on June 22, 2015.  I gave my boss my two weeks notice today.  Now starts the hard part.  Continue doing a good job even though I know I am quitting.  But I do it because it is the good and moral thing to do.

Well, it is time for me to head home.  I will keep y'all updated on what I am doing and I will be seeing all of you fellow truckers on the road soon.  Take care and God Bless.

Love,
The Oklahoma Tomcat
http://goo.gl/9WrfPn

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I started a new Jones Family Easter Tradition this year.  The children, my wife, and I had a wonderful time.  I bought a bunch of water balloons and put them in plastic Easter eggs and hid them with with real eggs and other plastic eggs filled with candy and treats. When the children found the eggs with the balloons in them, they were able to fill the balloons with water and throw them at me after the egg hunt.

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In this video blog, I talk about the most dangerous religion in the world.  I will tell you what that religion is and why it is the most dangerous religion.

Should we have a Constitutional Convention?

I have been hearing a lot about the states wanting a Constitutional Convention and have been asked if I support it.  In this blog, I give my answer to this question and explain. 

Vehicle breaks down and youtube come to the rescue ... again.

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  How is everyone doing.  I pray that this blog finds everyone in good health and spirits.  The past several weeks has been very eventful for me and my family.

Several weeks ago, I slipped on ice while going to work.  My hands were full with my book bag, lunch, and other items, so when I fell, I fell on my elbow. I heard something in my shoulder crack and I was unable to get up.  Luckily, I ended up breaking my shoulder blade and not my elbow.  The doctor said that it normally heals in 6 weeks but it ended up healing in 3 weeks.  My employer, Ball Pipe and Supply was real good.  It wasn't worker's comp because I wasn't working at the time the accident happened.  But they allowed me to go on limited duty so that I didn't miss any work days.

This past Thursday, our car broke down.  My wife took me to work cause she needed the car to take our son to Therapy Works in Tulsa, OK.  When she left Ball Pipe and Supply, she stopped to get fuel.  She goes to start the car after fueling and the car didn't even try to start.  The lights worked, the chime worked, the battery tested positive, the the car wouldn't start.  No 'click' or anything.  She calls me up and we had to cancel our son's appointment at Therapy Works.  We have the car towed to Fred's just to find out that their mechanic quit.  Great, now what?  They were nice enough to look over the vehicle and figured that the starter must be bad but really couldn't be positive since the guy who looked at it was a tire guy. They were real good at telling me that they can't be sure.  Based on the fact that they were not mechanics (and I really doubted that it was the starter), I decided to see if we could get the car to another shop.  They called around to several shops in the area but none could look at the car until Monday.  Not good.  I asked a co worker if he could take my wife and I home and then pick me up Friday morning to go back to work.  After work Friday, I walk to the car (was picked up on my way by a co worker who saw me walking).  When I get in the car, I decide to try to start the car.  Immediately I notice that something is wrong with the ignition.  The key turned to the start position with no resistance at all and it didn't snap back to the on position when I let go of the key.  The problem was in the ignition and I didn't like it.  I have to admit, this vehicle intimidates me when it comes to working on it.  It is a 2006 Jeep Liberty and it is the newest vehicle I have ever owned.  It also has lots of fancy electrical things that I do not understand.  But, this vehicle broke down in Shawnee once before and I stumbled upon a youtube video that helped me fix the problem back then.  I decided to try youtube again.  I knew I was going to have to replace the ignition so I went on youtube and searched:  Replace ignition 2006 Jeep Liberty.  Lots of videos popped up in the results, but one caught my eye.  It was "My Jeep Won't Crank Over SOLVED".  This video was great.  It described the problem he had with his vehicle, which was the same problem I was having.  He explained that the problem was a bad ignition actuator and recommended changing both the ingnition switch and actuator and explained why. He showed how to get to the two parts, how to removed the parts (even named the special tool needed), and even went into detail on how the parts work.  He was very detailed.  The only thing I would recommend is for him to improve the lighting. Once I got the parts and tools I needed, the task was easy and went very smooth.  The hardest part was putting the covers for the steering column back together.

I will tell y'all something.  I hear a lot of people talk about the things that is bad about the internet, but there is a lot of good things.  It is filled with lots of information that can help us out a lot.  I probably wouldn't have been able to afford to have this done at the shop but because I was able to look it up on the internet and get the parts at Auto Zone, I was able to get the job done.  The other thing is that my confidence is building and I am not as afraid as I use to be to work on the car.  It goes to show how God can take a terrible thing (my car breaking down away from the house) and turn it into a good thing (I can do all things with God).  Y'all have a great day and God bless.

The Oklahoma Tomcat
http://theoklahomatomcat.bravesites.com/

The Oklahoma Tomcat 14349

In this video blog I talk about a rock band, The Dirty Unkuls and play two of their songs.

I than talk about the $1.1 trillion spending bill that was passed and how I feel about it.

Last, I talk about the police shooting protests.

Listen to my blog at http://goo.gl/qhzNsE