Monday, December 29, 2008
New Years In NYC
Sunday, December 28, 2008
I Am a Sick Fan...
I know it is "just a game", but for those of us die-hards who pay big money to rely on competition to serve as a break from the reality of life, the gutless efforts put on display by these overpaid coaches and multi-millon dollar players just makes me wanna barf.
Can someone over there take control, get a little ticked and realize that us fans are their employers!? There is too much ego, no intensity, no discipline and no focus. Talent does not win games, heart and determination does. The Cowboys showed none this entire year.
Sure there is always "next year" but this gang of thugs don't deserve the attention.
Go Lions!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Turn Out the Lights...
The Cowboys are my drug. They are my escape from it all and Texas Stadium has been my dealer and last night she gave it one final bow as we turned out the lights on an era chopped full of incredible memories.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Kids Visit Santa
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Trip of a Lifetime
After having three kids and tail-spinning down into a minivan I had no idea just a few years later I would end up being fortunate enough to get back into a Vette and my dream car at that!
Right now you can almost steal cars from dealers so I had to at least look into the possibility of getting a Vette again. I quickly learned if there ever was a time, NOW was the time. I found a used 2006 Z06 at a dealership in Cleveland and decided to go for it. These cars were selling for over $72,000 two years ago. I would be ashamed to even share what I stole this one for with only 9,000 miles on it!
On top of buying the car, I took advantage of my love for road trips and decided to drive the car back to Texas myself. I flew Southwest to Cleveland on Monday and drove this sweet baby all the way back to her home here in Texas!
I completed my longest alone road trip ever! I saw Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Louisville, Nashville, Memphis and Little Rock along they way. Plus, I got to visit the NFL Hall of Fame which was great and spent 3 hours in Bowling Green, KY where they made my Z06 at the GM factory there. I even got to tour the factory. It was unreal. The Corvette Museum was really cool too. Despite the bad weather for the entire trip (snow, ice, rain, fog) I really had fun. I stopped in Louisville and Little Rock on the way. It was a 1300 mile trip that took me from Monday until Wednesday.
Some observations from my trip:
1. Cracker Barrels have to be the number one restaurant in the midwest!
2. Every major city between here and there is a copycat of the other in many ways - same retail centers, same looking malls, hotels, gas stations - pretty bland if you ask me.
3. Memphis is one dirty place.
4. Cincinnati was way cool.
5. The Corvette Museum and GM Factory Tour are musts!
6. People in the North drive like maniacs in snowy weather!
7. The OJ Simpson bust in he NFL Hall of Fame is eerie.
8. Marriott has it down when it comes to hotels!
Thankfully we are not just a minivan fam any longer!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Julie Completes White Rock Half Marathon
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Equal Health Christmas Gala 2008 Best Ever
But this year just might have topped them all as the annual party was held at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine with special speaker and current EHL sales consultant Jim Tressler. The atmosphere was amazing, the service and food was great and the fun everyone had together was exceptional. In a time when most companies are cutting jobs and many are not even having Christmas parties, Equal Health is fortunate to be one that is growing, hiring and setting an example that the Free Enterprise system of America still works!
It was incredible to see my staff rewarded for such a great year in such a tough time.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Oak Island, Galveston Still Needs Help
My company, equalhealth.com, had decided to make the Oak Island Community our charity drive for November. This community of about 300 families is located about 20 miles east of Galveston and was just ravaged by Hurricane Ike in September. The pastor of the baptist church there is running center point for a community that has basically nothing left. Only two homes remain liveable. People are living in tents. They need everything. My company had donated enough funds to buy about 50 portable heater so we loaded them up and I drove them down there Sunday.
I was amazed at how much damage there was and how much was still left to be done. Clean up will take years. Rebuilding will take a long time as well.
Galveston was under repair and was cleaned up quite a bit though the west side was still ravaged. Words to describe the entire area would be: ravaged, devastated, shredded, thrashed, and leveled. So many businesses and historical things are gone forever. Places I grew up seeing and knowing. Though the Island is recovering, it is sad to know it will never be the same.
Oak Island however is in need of help and if anyone wants to do so, please contact me and I will put you in contact with the pastor. They need clean up and work grews bad and all of the media is now gone.
Photos are here: http://www.thefamilypost.com/Speersfamily/albums.php
Here are some videos of the area I shot:
Friday, November 28, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!
Here's wishing everyone a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful start to the 2008 Holiday Season!
Monday, November 24, 2008
What About the Fellas?
Myself, Clint Locks, David Curlee, David Tercek, Tim Williams and Scott Rinehart were the founders if you will and for the most part we stay in touch. The likes of Matt Sherman, Michael Harris, Ralph Jensen, Chris Novinger, Jason Myers, Greg Hightower and some others have since become a part of the clan. From the filming of "Attack of the Killer Spoons" in 1993 to "Revenge of the Forks" in 2007 (still in production - ehm Dave) the fellas have been one hilarious group.
Saturday a huge day occured as the final fella holding out on family and marriage finally agreed to terms with his lovely woman, Jenn. Yes, Scott Rinehart took the plunge before 40 (and hopefully before 10pm Saturday after the ceremony - he,he) and got himself married!
Michael T did the same a few months earlier leaving Scott as the lone "single", never married ranger.
Not no mo.
He is now married and the fellas are officially off the market.
Sorry ladies, but it was about time we all grew up....
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Ozarks Bring Much Needed FRESH AIR
Once you get through the beating called Oklahoma (seriously, has to be the ugliest terrain and worse roads ever), and enter Arkansas, you quickly learn why it is called the "natural state". It is beautiful, espeically in the fall when most trees are bright red, yellow, green or orange.
Ahh, I wish I could still breath the cool, crisp air. For pics visit our website:
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
My First Book Published
It is called "The Quinny Story". It is a memoir of the adoption of our son and our journey to South Korea. You can preview the book here.
http://www.lulu.com/content/4757690
Saturday, November 01, 2008
November is National Adoption Month
Our adoptiong agency has a fund setup in honor of our son, Quinn. Donations can be made here:
http://www.dillonadopt.com/ Just search for the Quinn fund. All donations go to families looking to adopt that need financial assistance.
Every child deserves a family, maybe you can be that family! Think about it. Your life will never be the same!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
365 Days From Today....
Today I hit 39.
It is truly amazing that I will be in my 40s in a matter of days at this point. It truly does feel like "yesterday" that I was enthralled in my 20s and living it up.
I'm still living it up, though the "up" parts have changed and my parts have all gotten a decade or more older.
Life is good but my mid-life crisis begins now - blonde hair, convertable, young hot wife on my side (yes, she is still in her EARLY 30s).....
Monday, October 13, 2008
State Fair Family Fun
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Two Issues Being Ignored in the Debates! Christians Beware
Putting the party platforms aside and ignoring the scary connections to questionable people Obama is friends with, there are really only two issues that a Christian needs to consider regarding this Presidential election. And both of these have huge moral and spiritual consequences should we choose wrongly.
1. Supreme Court Justice Selection – more than likely the next President will elect 1-2 (if not more) Supreme Court Justices. These judges dictate the laws of our nation. The more liberal those judges are, the more likely it will be that our religious freedoms and Christ-like, Biblical-based values will be under even more attack. These judges serve for life or until they retire which could be a catastrophe of historic proportions if Obama is elected and has a democratic controlled congress to approve liberal judges. Obama has made it clear he will nominate such judges. God help us all if this happens and we turn even further away from God because of even more liberal judicial decisions.
2. Abortion – Not only is Obama pro-abortion, but he is even more pro-abortion than others such as Hillary Clinton! He refused to sign a bill recently that would prohibit doctors from attempting to help a baby that survived an abortion, thus requiring the doctors and nurses to watch babies who are now OUT-OF-THE-WOMB starve and die a painful death. In 2003, Obama prevented the Born Alive Infants Protection Act (BAIPA) from even getting a hearing in the Senate. BAIPA stated that all live-born babies were guaranteed the same constitutional right to equal protection, whether or not they were wanted. This is murder at the highest level (these babies are out of the womb!) and until America overturns our abortion laws we will see God’s hand continue to be removed from our nation. This is why the first item (Judges) is so important!
Anyone that calls themself a Christian that could sit there and watch a baby struggle to breathe, without water or food or attention, sometimes for hours before they die, does not know the Jesus I know that gave His own life for us. To support a man that has no desire to end this horrible infantcide and stands in favor of other abortion rights laws is completely irresponsible.
If you are a true Christian – that is a follower of Christ, and somehow you have talked yourself into supporting Obama and excusing his liberal stances that are in direct conflict to the Biblical values all true Christians are called to follow, then you, my friend, are being deceived. You either believe in God’s word or you don’t. It is that simple. The Bible clearly warns us all to be cautious of smooth talking leaders and teachers!
I read recently about a local pastor in the DFW area that basically said from the pulpit what I just stated above. His congregation is highly diverse and many are black. All of them profess to know the Lord and trust in Christ. Yet, after he made those comments (which are all very Biblical and true) nearly every black person stood up and left his church that day.
I wasn’t surprised. Too many Christians today allow faith to be secondary to race, politics, and social tolerance.
Pass this on, make sure you vote and as a believer, DON'T BE SILENT!!!
This election is too important for those of us that truly follow Christ to sit idly by and wait for all hell to break loose and if Obama wins, it will.
http://conservativelight.blogspot.com/
"For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people." Romans 16:18
Friday, October 03, 2008
Cowboys Practice
We also got to tour their locker room and the valley ranch offices. Jerry Jones was supposed to be there as well, but he got called into a surprise meeting with the NCAA.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Korean Thanksgiving Celebration - Chusok
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Where is the Love?
Dumb people living/staying in a flooded city BELOW SEA level get more love....figures.
Here are some very sad photos of a place I love and spent many a day with my mom and sister with during my childhood. It will never be the same.
Pray for those in the Houston/Galveston area and those in western Louisiana too. For many, all was lost.
http://www.tpicks.com/pictures_people_have_sent_me.htm
Donate to the North Texas Food Bank today!
http://www.ntxfoodbank.org/gi_hurricane_ike_preparation.cfm
Monday, September 15, 2008
Hurricane Ike Devastates Galveston
We also shopped at Murdochs opened in 1910 and a long time giftshop out on a pier off the seawall. Today it is rubble on top of Seawall Blvd. So sad. We just took pictures there overlooking the water weeks ago.
This is so sad.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Some Have, But We Certainly Haven't Forgotten
Let us not forget the horrible act those RADICAL MUSLIMS did to our nation. Let us not forget the men, women and children who died in New York City, in Washington DC and in Pennsylvania. Adults became widows, parents became childless and children became orphans on that day.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Cowboys Start SuperBowl Run - Final Season at Texas Stadium
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Our Babies Turn Three!
Our girls turned three today. No more diapers, no more passies, no more babbling, no more whinning.....ok that isn't gone yet, but our babies are...well...now little girls.
Monday, August 18, 2008
25 Years Ago Today - We Survived a Hurricane
The text below is from the National Weather Service office for Houston/Galveston
Alicia, in August 1983, was the first hurricane to make landfall on the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Allen hit South Texas on Aug. 9, 1980.
The highest winds recorded on land were 96 mph sustained, and gusts were up to 127 mph. The lowest barometric pressure recorded on land was 28.55" at the Alvin weather service office. Rainfall amounts exceeded 5 inches in most places, and the east side of Houston received almost 11 inches. The highest storm surge was a 12' reading at Seabrook on Galveston Bay. On the gulf side of Galveston Island, tides were 7.5', and on the bay they were 8'. Baytown, on the north shore of Galveston Bay, recorded a 10.7' tide which put water on the rooftops in the Brownwood subdivision. Severe freshwater flooding was minimized by Alicia's fast movement inland, and most damage was the result of wind and storm surge or a combination of the two.
Twenty-three tornadoes were reported during Alicia. 14 occurred between Galveston and Houston as the storm made landfall, and the other 9 touched down the next day between Houston and Tyler. All but 2 of these were small, with winds between 40-72 mph. The strongest tornado occurred near Tyler, in Northeast Texas, with winds in the 113-157 mph range.
Twenty-one persons died as a result of Alicia. 25 others were hospitalized and 3,094 were injured or became ill. The Red Cross provided shelter or food for 63,000 people. A total of 2,297 dwellings were destroyed and another 3,008 suffered major damage. 18,660 families suffered losses from Alicia. The $2 billion in damages made Alicia the costliest hurricane in Texas history.
Some memorable features of Alicia included the final destruction of the Brownwood subdivision, a victim of subsidence, which had experienced almost annual flooding. The hurricane provided the opportunity for FEMA to "buy-out" the homes there and forego future flood insurance and disaster payments.
Also, the loss of trees in the Houston area was staggering. The area had received soaking rains during the previous week and the soil was so saturated that the trees were easily blown down by the high winds. It is estimated that the trees and limbs blown down by the storm would have covered a football field to a height of 1,200'.
In downtown Houston, shards of glass became deadly missiles when hundreds of window panes were broken out of skyscrapers by gravel blown from nearby rooftops. The windows were designed to withstand hurricane winds but not impact from debris. The result was huge piles of broken glass in the streets below.
On Galveston's West Beach, Alicia moved the public beach boundary back an average of 150'. The storm surge scoured up to 5' of sand from the beach and left several homes in front of the natural vegetation line and technically on the public beach. Thus, the homes were in violation of the Texas Open Beaches Act and the Attorney General's office forebade the repair or rebuilding of those homes.
The Corps of Engineers estimated that the Galveston seawall prevented $100 million in additional damage. The corps said that without the seawall, Alicia would have created a swath of destruction one to two blocks into the city behind the seawall.
Although Alicia cost Texans $2 billion, it is estimated that a hurricane the size of Carla would have doubled or tripled the damage. Aircraft observations indicated that only a 60 mile section of the coast, extending northeastward from Freeport, experienced hurricane force winds.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Family Vacation Deserved a Gold Medal!
Quinn loved his first beach experience (he ate about 2 lbs of sand) and the girls discovered the art of boogie-boarding in 2 inch water. This year we stayed a little longer and planned to do a lot less than usual so we had more beach and relaxation time. It was so nice. We did manage to eat at Marios, have some Shipley Donuts one morning, see the Sea Turtle facility, shop the Strand, and make our way over to fun times at the Kemah Boardwalk.
Nothing like a good ol' family vacation. Now it will take us 2 weeks to get back to normal around here...
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Galveston Vacation Around the Corner
Friday, August 08, 2008
Speers Website Update
Check out our website. We just did a big update!
http://www.thefamilypost.com/Speersfamily/
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Tons of Wiggle Room
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Going Back to Cali, to Cali, to Cali....
Friday, July 18, 2008
Take My Comedy Movie Poll
I have compiled (and will likely add to) a list of my personal favorites - these do not include animated movies. Get Smart being one of the most recent! Go see it!
Make sure and complete the poll to the right and also, post me some comments about your faves!
Here's my list, so far:
Liar, Liar 1997
Get Smart 2008
Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975
Space Balls 1987
Wayne's World 1992
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels 1988
Zoolander 2001
Meet the Fockers 2004
Wild Hogs 2007
Pet Detective 1994
Dumb & Dumber 1994
Christmas Vacation 1989
Three Amigos 1986
Tommy Boy 1995
Black Sheep 1996
Rush Hour 1998
Airplane 1980
Trains, Planes, Automobiles 1987
The Jerk 1979
Vacation 1983
Coming to America 1988
Blazing Saddles 1974
Home Alone 1990
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Korean Constitution Day
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Rangers Game Daddy Date
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Happy 4th Weekend!
Hope your weekend is fun! Thanks God, for giving us America.
Remember, this election is VITAL to our future. http://www.conservativelight.blogspot.com/
Monday, June 30, 2008
Big Equal Health News!
Below are some basic facts about this new product:
What is a “LovePlan”?
A LovePlan is a unique insurance plan that combines term life insurance with critical illness health insurance. This is the policy that your family needs to help make continuing mortgage payments, pay off the mortgage, or simply provide a large source of funds for other monthly bills if you should die or become critically ill. The Critical Illness portion of this plan provides coverage if you have a Heart Attack, Stroke, Cancer, Major Organ Transplant, Renal (Kidney) Failure or Alzheimer’s. You can use this money to pay for your medical expenses or cover the loss of income or living expenses while you are in the hospital. You could even use the money to take a recuperative vacation.
Why do I need this?
Every year thousands of families lose their homes because of the death of a parent or extreme medical bills resulting from a critical illness such as cancer, stroke or heart attack. A LovePlan will help your family pay the mortgage or other monthly bills as a parent or spouse recovers or as they deal with the passing of a parent or spouse.
Please pray this new product line can be a huge part of our future here at Equal Health!
Brady Speers, CEO
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Girls Transition to Big-Girl Beds
My dad keeps telling me one day I will be saying, "It seems like yesterday they were being born and here they are getting married!".
I can only pray somehow time stands still a little longer.