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Drew’s Winning Talent Contest Rap

July 2, 2011 in Family, Videos with 0 Comments

This weekend Mt. Pulaski is celebrating our 175th birthday. Part of the weekend festivities was a talent show last night. Drew and his cousin Daniel performed a rap written by my brother-in-law Rob about Mt. Pulaski’s history. Here’s the rap with the words. At the end you can see Drew’s mad dance skills.

I was also roped into to doing a Russian style dance for these two piano-dueling jerks which may or may not make its way on the WWW.

OK, they’re not jerks, they are actually quite fun to watch and very talented. Makes me definitely wish I’d stuck with the piano lessons.

Help Bring Tzu-Lun Home!

May 17, 2011 in Causes, Family with 5 Comments

Total Donations: $415.00

Today I’m thrilled to announce a new giveaway! Last year I had the opportunity to raise money to help the Mott family with their adoption of Fikirte and Konjit from Ethiopia. The girls came home in August 2010, and it has been a real treat getting to know them. So this year I’d like to try to help another family with their adoption. A couple I went to high school with (Travis and Andrea Schroll…high school sweethearts…everyone say “awwww….”) are in the process of adopting a six month old little boy from Taiwan named Tzu-Lun (aka Kobi). Their hope is to have Kobi home this fall. I wish we could share his photo on here but since he’s not officially a Schroll we can’t.

What you can win

On June 6th, 2011 I will giving away $125 worth of Beachbody® products. Here are just some of the products/programs you could win:

How to win

For every $10 you donate to the adoption fund you will be entered one time. The more you donate the more you’ll be entered. $20 will get you two entries, $30 gets you three…yada, yada, yada. Click on the Donate Button above to donate online with your credit or debit card or with an e-check. If you prefer to send a check you can leave a comment below and I’ll email you the address you can send it to (make sure you provide your email address in the email field). If you run into me and want to use cash, that will work too. In addition, for every $1,000 raised I will give another $125 worth away. If you share or like this post on Facebook or Tweet a link to this post (with the hashtag #bringkobihome) it you will be entered to win a Beachbody® “Decide. Commit. Succeed” T-Shirt (a $20 value). Here’s a sample Tweet you can use:
Help bring Tzu-Lun home and you could win $125 worth of Beachbody® products. #bringkobihome http://t.co/Xo5w7eS via @boynamedtracy.  
I would also appreciate it if you would follow me on Twitter and “Like” A Boy Named Tracy on Facebook. Neither of these are required to win, but it would be nice. Pretty please?

There’s More!

For the entire summer I will be donating half of the proceeds from the following to the adoption fund: For details, check out my Beachbody® coaching site at http://www.beachbodycoach.com/boynamedtracy.

How the Winner is Announced

I will store your name & email address for every $10 you donate in a database. This will not be used in any other way other than for this drawing. Your info will not be sold or used for any other purpose. I will have the Schrolls give me a number. That number is the number of times I will run the randomizer. The person that comes up will be the winner. If there are more than 1 drawings, I will removed the first winner’s name and run it again. I will repeat until the total number of giveaways is done. I will announce here and on FB the names of the winners (just names, not emails). I will then contact the winners via email to see which product(s) the winner chooses. Those products will be sent directly to the winners from Beachbody®. In other words, these will be legit, brand new, unopened products. The winners will receive the products in roughly one week. Shortly thereafter they will be totally fit and ripped! Those of you who didn’t win will be disappointed with not winning but happy you were able to help a child receive a loving family.

Here’s some more stuff

Again, I promise, your email address will be completely safe with me. Also, your online donations are completely handled by PayPal. I will not see any credit card information. I will only see the amount donated. I will be as completely transparent as I can. I will provide a total amount on this page. I receive nothing from this giveaway except maybe some added traffic. The sole purpose is to help fund this adoption. Probably a lot of you are questioning why you would possibly donate money to a guy you don’t know. How can you trust me? How can you make sure the money goes exactly where I say it’s going to? Those are valid questions and I guess ultimately the answer is you can’t be 100% sure. There is some faith involved here, but I hold your trust in very high regard! Feel free to contact my church http://www.mtpulaskicc.org for a personal reference. I’m sure the Motts wouldn’t mind if you head over to their site and ask them about last year’s giveaway either.

Spinning Plates

May 5, 2011 in Family, Featured, General, Marriage, Parenting, Spiritual Matters with 4 Comments

Spinning Plates Photo

Ever feel like this?

Like your life’s sole purpose is to keep all those plates spinning?

You give one a few flips of the wrist to keep one plate going only to find another teetering on the brink of falling.

You rush to that plate and give it a few whirls only to notice another wobbling.

Your attention quickly turns to that plate but yet another plate has almost stopped completely and ready to abandon its post.

About the time you save that one the first one you spun is slowing down.

And so it goes, on and on. Spinning plate after plate. Never making progress.

You’re tempted to let one plate fall but something is stopping you.

You give it one more spin. One’s not enough though.

You’ve spent so much time and energy keeping that one going you just can’t let it go.

Just one more spin turns into another that turns into another.

Round and round they go.

Have you been there?

Are you there now?

I am.

I follow Christ. That’s a plate.

I am a husband. That’s another plate.

I’m a dad. There’s plate number three.

I am a web developer. Plate four.

I volunteer at church. Number five.

We’re trying to dig our way out of debt, so we’re trying to figure out different ways to make more money and spend less. Plate six.

We are new homeowners. There are a lot of projects that need done. Seven

I’m writing a book. There’s eight.

I’m developing an iPhone/iPad app. That’s plate nine.

I’m trying to get back in shape. Ten.

I’m a blogger (well at least I try to be). Number eleven.

I’m a Beachbody Coach. Plate number twelve.

These are just the plates I can think of off the top of my head.

That’s a lot of spinning. I’m not sure the ideal number of plates but I’m sure the smaller the better.

There are a few main plates that I will keep spinning no matter the cost.

However, figuring out which ones to let fall is the difficult decision.

How about you? How many plates to you have going right now? How do you decide which plates to let go?

 

This Year’s Birthday Wish List

April 19, 2011 in Family, General with 0 Comments

This year, on April 30th, I turn a prime number. If you’re wondering which prime number, I’ll give you a hint: it’s not 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19 or 23. It’s also not 79.

It’s not really that significant, but when you’re getting up there in years you look for anything remotely positive to hang your hat on. Mine is that I’m going to be a prime number—which means I’m in my prime. Right?

But one positive about any birthday is gifts.

I like gifts.

And as a service to you all who love to get me gifts, last year I posted my list right here so the whole world could see it. Unfortunately, the whole world either forgot or remembered after April 30th and felt awkward about giving them to me after my birthday so they didn’t give them at all. That’s ok. I’m a very forgiving person. To show you how forgiving I  am, I’m providing my list again this year for you to redeem yourself. Very thoughtful of me, huh?

So, here’s what I want for my birthday.

  • For Sallie Mae to call me up and say, “you know what, you and your wife are such awesome individuals that we would like to forgive both your student loans.”
  • For a lifetime supply of Starbucks. Since the “B” word (“budget”) reared it’s ugly head again Starbucks hasn’t been getting as much of my money.
  • For a Chic-Fil-A in Springfield.
  • For at least one person to click on at least one ad on my site and buy at least one thing so I actually feel like I’m making some money off here. To help you, here’s a link.
  • For either a Camaro SS2 or Mustang Shelby GT 500. Black with silver stripes please :-) One of these would do nicely!
  • For Adam Wainright to be miraculously healed so he can come back this year.
  • A Notre Dame national championship.
  • For NFL players to stop doing shampoo and body soap commercials or even talking about their hair. This isn’t figure skating.
  • Cash, which is just as good as money.
  • For our bathroom and basement to be fixed. The joys of home ownership.
  • For the IRS to actually send us our $8,000 first-time home buyers credit.
  • World peace.
  • For the world to know Jesus.
  • For people other than spammers to leave comments on my posts.

So there you have it, my short, simple birthday list.

Remember, April 30th is the date!

There are perks to having boys!

March 29, 2011 in Family with 0 Comments

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit

Josh’s birthday was on March 14th. Drew’s birthday was yesterday (March 28th). Mine is April 30th. Nate’s is not until August (13th).

Both Josh and Drew asked for money. Josh has been saving up for an iPod Touch for quite a while. Drew just likes to spend money.

With the money he had saved up and the birthday money he got, Josh had enough for the iPod and a case plus about $50 extra (yeah, I know, I was jealous too).

Drew got quite a bit of money too.

Now, I’m not a huge gamer any more. There are video games I like to play but I just don’t play nearly as much as I used to. One game I fell in love with after renting it was Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. And if there was one game I would actually ask for as a gift would be this one. But even though I would like that game, I’m saving up my blow money and hopefully getting some birthday money from my wonderful, darling, sweet, loving and kind wife and going to try to get an iPad (of course, if you want to help out, feel free :-) .

I always feel bad for Nate around this time of year too since his two other brothers have birthdays so close to each other they get all the swag and he has to wait six months for his time. He also wants Need for Speed.

Apparently the other day Drew and Josh started negotiating a deal. They agreed to put some of their money together and get an XBox game.

Guess which one!

So they tell me this on Saturday and I try to act all dad-like while inside I’m as giddy as a tween in the front row of a Justin Bieber concert.

Sunday rolls around and we were going out for Drew’s birthday and they asked if we could run out and get the game. Again, nonchalantly I say that we’ll “try” (yeah, right, we were going to make it if I had to drive that minivan 90mph).

About that time Nate starts talking to his brothers, offering to chip in.

I grabbed him as about as fast as I ever had before and we had an important father-son talk.

“Nate, ” I said, “I really want that game too. But if they have already agreed to split it 50/50, WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU OFFER SOME OF YOUR MONEY????? Let them pay for it and WE CAN JUST PLAY MAN!”

There are those definable moments in life—Like when Ralphie gets in the fight with Scott Farkus and his mom doesn’t tell “The old man”—when you find your relationship with your child jumps to the next level. This discussion I had with Nate is one of those moments.

So we just happen to have enough time to run out to the store after lunch (wink, wink) and get the game.

It was my turn to put the boys to bed Sunday night, so about 9:30 I rushed them off to bed because I had some very important dad-business to take care of.

I like these birthdays much more than when they were toddlers!

Happy Birthday Drew!

March 28, 2011 in Family with 1 Comment

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Happy Birthday Josh!

March 14, 2011 in Family with 2 Comments

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New Facebook Profile Page

December 18, 2010 in Family with 0 Comments

My New Facebook Profile Page, in memory of my dad

I love the what you can do with the new Facebook profile options. Not only does your profile pic show, at the top of the page also shows the last five photos that you were tagged in.

What’s nice about this is that you can put whatever pictures you want up there by tagging yourself.

Here’s how to customize it if you would like (I used Photoshop).

  1. First you have to enable the new profile options. That’s easy. Just go to this page.
  2. Take a screen shot of your current Facebook page (on a Mac you can CMD + SHIFT + CLICK then hit the spacebar to toggle it to capturing a window, then click on your browser window with your Facebook profile pulled up. The pic usually goes to your desktop).
  3. Create a new Photoshop file the same size as your screen shot. Use the slice tool to create slices around your profile pic and the five tagged photos at the top.
  4. Now you can put any graphics/pictures you want to use in place of the profile pic & the tagged photos. Using masks in Photoshop works great for this. Helps you make the pics the exact size.
  5. When you’re happy with the results now all that’s left is to export the new graphics. You may want to change the names of the slices to be more descriptive. I used profile_pic for the profile and named the other ones tagged_01, tagged_02 etc.
  6. To export the slices go to File—>Save for Web & Devices. You probably want to select JPEG or PNG image types. Then click on the save and pick the location you want to save the files.
  7. After the photos have been exported, go back into Facebook and change your profile pic to the one you just exported. Then upload the 5 tagged photos pics to an album and tag yourself in them.
  8. There you have it. Pretty easy. Of course you don’t need Photoshop, you can use any graphics editor you have at your disposal.

For some inspiration, check out these 10 Creative Uses of the New Facebook Profile.

Our Dad In Black & White

December 18, 2010 in Family, Parenting with 2 Comments








Today

December 18, 2010 in Family, General with 0 Comments

dad.jpg

One year ago today my dad passed away. Throughout the day I’ll be posting thoughts and photos as a tribute to him. I’ll be posting the updates on Facebook & Twitter, so if you don’t follow me or we aren’t Facebook friends, why not?

Follow boynamedtracy on Twitter

Tracy Dyer | Create Your Badge

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