Wethington Family Blog

It sometimes astounds me that I even have this page, when I update it maybe once or twice a year. I know no one hates me for it, but I should use it more often. Oh, well. At least there’s always email.

We had a nice outing today to celebrate some belated birthdays and anniversaries. We met up with Heather’s family in Solvang and did a little shopping. More looking really 

It’s a nice enough place, but I’m just not the window shopping kind of guy. You can see more pictures in the gallery.

So I finally updated the theme and fixed the gallery… so I guess that means it’s time for an update!

Anyway, I’m not making any promises, but I hope to give a better update later. I added an album with some historical 2007 photos, I hope you enjoy.

So after years of hosting my own web site. I finally had to say good bye. The site resided for a while with a buddy of mine, but after not getting email for 5 days, not to mention any answers, I finally broke down and set up hosting with Total Choice Hosting. I’ve been recommending them for years. They really are as good as I’ve always said. Anyway, what that means is that some things don’t work yet. Particularly the Gallery and DVD Database. I’m not sure I’m gonna get them fixed by the end of the weekend.

If I don’t, they’ll be down for a bit as the Family and I are off to Shaver Lake and the last thing I want to do is stare are code and try and figure out how to get everything over. Anyway, we’ll be having fun, so should you.

It’s been over a month since the last update. I wish I could say it has only been life that has gotten in the way. It sure has had it’s twists and such, but alas, it’s also some laziness thrown in as well.

 First, let me say that Information Logistics is finally dead. It’s been in the last spams of life for over a year, and now, finally, will be laid to rest. What is Information Logistics? It was a company that my friend and I owned over the last five years. The last thing to go has been or colocated servers at Digital Putty. We continued hosting services for some friends and family and a business associate that still hosted, what I thought was 40 domains. Anyway, the cost of colocation has more than caught up with us. I contacted our remaining “customers” and informaed everyone that the servers would be turned off on 3/31/06… However, the server, specifically the mail server, had a different idea. Late Monday afternoon, I worked with the business that hosts with us on trimming off the customers that had left so as to keep the load on the server low. After removing the stale accounts, the server just wouldn’t behave right. After two and a half hours, I fixed the first problem. Then there was another that I didn’t find until Tuesday morning. After an additional 3 hours, another problem surfaced. Just 10 days before being turned off I’d already put in almost 6 hours trying to work on a server that was going to be shut down! After a few more hours working on the 3rd problem, I finally gave up. It was time to help the remaining customers move their services as quickly as possible. Rest In Piece solomon.goinfologistics.com and good bye to Information Logistics.

Probably a greater upheaval over this last month has been that New Life Church has decided that they will no longer support Shepherd’s Table. New Life has currently supported Shepherd’s Table as a church within a church. Similar to a spanish congregation at an english church. They paid for the pastor and small staff as well as an operating budget. While the relationship between the two churches has always been a little strained. The abruptness of the final decision to no longer support ST was amazing. Two people lost their full-time jobs and given an ok serverance package. Yes, it’s a package, but it’s just ok. According to our employee manual, it’s the bare minimum. As ST, we have been left scambling to put together a foundation to continue on. Since we were part of New Life, we have no funds of our own, no ability to even accept funds as we had no bank account or organizational structure to deal with incoming money. We had no board, no space, no stuff.

 Over the past week, we have a starting structure, and the plans are laid for a more permanent and healthy structure. We now have a bank account as a non-profit so we can accept tithes and offerings. We’re looking into a space. At over 50 people on a normal Sunday, a home just can’t cut it long term. We are planning the process out for abtaining a formal 501(c)3. We are also working with New Life to keep much of the items that ST has been using over the past 2 years. Anyway, this has been a rough month for ST, but I truely believe God has a plan for us. Our desire right now is not that He bless us so much as to help us be within His will.

Due to my working at New Life and experienceing all the changes for ST personally, it has also been a rough work month. I can only hope that when ST is finally out, work will settle down, as will the emotions of the place. I am seriously considering leaving, once I find something, as I don’t think that I could just peacfully work through any other issues that I seriously dis-agree with leadership on.

From a familial stand point. The Wethington clan is doing well. The boys continue to enjoy Karate and are doing well in school. Hayden is becoming quite the reader and Harrison is being challenged in Math by having to start working with equations and geometry. Heather is also being challenged this month on her personal goals and what it means to be a Coordinator in her Body Shop Business. Of course she and boys also feel the challenges of shutting IL down and the changes at New Life and ST.

My prayer right now is no that life will settle down, but that we can exist in His will. They we can be content with the changes and not fight against them, or take them so peronally. I look forward to talking to each of you in person!

Saturday was the BSA Pack 13 Pine Wood Derby. Pretty fun day for Harrison. Unfortunately, Hayden wasn’t feeling well so Heather and Hayden stayed home, but we all had cars entered. As Harrison is the Cub Scout, his is the only one that really counted. We all had fun and each one of us was responsible for our own cars. Now, while that’s the way it is supposed to be, I know that I have an issue with “Product over Process.” Heather reminds me us this often. I guess I just want everything to look right.

We didn’t wait until the last day, but we only took 1 week to work on our cars. A friend did the original cuts, then each of us primed our cars, painted them, then put the wheels on. For Hayden’s car I did the wheels though. Of course each of the scouts were supposed to do there own cars, yet it was evident that there was quite a bit of help by many of the parents, not that I would ever accuse anyone of cheating. Ahem.

(From left to right) Hank’s, Harrison’s and Hayden’s cars

Harrison, I thought came in 3rd for his Den, but when it came to the award ceremony, he wasn’t called. As it really wasn’t a big deal to us, we didn’t complain. He did a great job on his car and attitude. Like many of us, Harrison likes to win, and sometimes has a hard time when he loses, especially if he feels he was cheated. Our friend David, came in Second over all after winning for his Den, which amazingly enough is what he wanted as he already had a First and Third place overall trophy!

Harrison is already planning his car out for next year. We’ll have to see what he comes up with.

It ended up being an interesting week of workouts for the Wethington family. We all workout at The Pit in one form or another. This was Harrison’s 2nd week in Kid’s World after his promotion and the adjustment has been the hardest one for him yet. He’s working real hard but is way more tired after his classes. He’s doing a great job though and raising some eyebrows as he is still pretty young for the group. He went from being the proverbial big fish to being one of the smaller kids in class.

Hayden of course didn’t have any major change, but they are “kicking” up the workouts for all levels of students at the pit. More bag work and an even greater emphasis on conditioning.

Heather, after a few weeks of being sick, is finally back on the treadmill and is planning on hitting the rowing machine this week as she is feeling a ton better. It’s been frustrating for her having to wait while recovering.

For me the workouts were tough this week, but today was the capper. Saturday’s are grappling day along with a full workout. Grappling was great this morning. While I mostly worked with John Hackleman, which is always hard, it was very educational today. I learned a ton from him and was thoroughly exhausted afterwards. After 50 minutes of ground work it was time for the rest of the workout. WOW. I was pretty tired and wasn’t sure I had enough left in me for it. The workout; 50 each, box jumps (24 inch), clean and jerks (110#), pull-ups, shoulder press (50# each hand), and elephants (50#), all for time. Let’s just say 9 hours later and I’m still wiped and sore. Oh well, it was a great day!

Last night Harrison was awarded his Bobcat Badge! He even elected to be hung upside down (an option) while it was pinned on him. He was very excited. For those that don’t know, “on the bobcat trail, a new Cub learns the Cub Scout Promise, the Law of the Pack, and the Cub Scout Motto. These are important, as they will pave the way for future advancement.” No pictures of the event since Heather and I were both involved with him on stage. I’ll check to see if someone else got pictures.

As you go through your day today, think about what it means to be a child of God. If we understand that God loves us unconditionally (something that may be hard for some to truely understand), what then is it that we do that shows that we love Him? As a child (if you don’t have kids yet) what is it that you do that tells/shows your parents you love them? If you have children, what is it that they do that shows that they love you?

Greetings all. Well, I don’t want to feel like I’m jumping on a bandwagon, however, we felt that “blogging” would be the best way to keep our site updated about our family’s happenings. Please feel free to sign up and comment on what is going on for the 4 of us.

The new year has started and the kids are back to their school work today. Everyone had a great break including Heather and I, as we spent a nice quite week together between Christmas and New Years. Harrison and Hayden both promoted last month and Harrison has even been promoted to Kid’s World! The Pit has been great for them. You can check out some pictures here.

Anyway, more to come.