The Dragon Has Arrived

Greetings family and friends. Last night Rachel and I decided to go to the hospital. About 3:46 in the morning Levi Drake came into the world.

So it has already been a great day for the Rodriguez family. Levi says hello and he can't wait to meet you.

Ella Shay and Sophia Grey were very excited to meet their little brother Levi Drake today. Sophia was very interested in his feet and face, and she loved to touch his hair.


A little insight on this past month for the Rodriguez family:

1. A GIFT OF BUTCH LOVE.

Rach and I got to go and see our favorite musician Butch Walker in Grand Rapids. Our first time seeing Butch was last year @ the House of Blues in Cleveland OHIO. It was Rachels birthday gift to me. The sad thing is, we were taking pictures outside in line for a while, and no joke, our camera broke right when we walked in!! So all of our amazing memories from that show were just 3x5's in our mind.

This time around was a bit different. As a valentines day present for my wife, I purchased Butch tickets for a March show in GRap. I am always a bit nervous to do this kind of stuff on-line, but we knew that this tour he was playing smaller venues and it was for the wife, so i did. My daughter Sophia even dressed up for the show (but she didn't get to go)

Within a week A friend of mine whose name will be left unsaid to keep his identity safe (his name rhymes with Feenan) told me he couldn't get tickets, but I did. Which meant that I was one of the first 30 tickets to be purchased. THIS meant that I would get to MEET BUTCH and my wife and I would get to watch him warm up, and a meet and greet!!! what an honor. and soo..........

Preshow:Meeting the Artist:
Time to Rock:

The concert was amazing. It was alot of fun hanging out with my friends who were at the show also.

2. CARS

This month has also been a good month for MARVS car lot. We have been selling alot of cars, and I continue to learn more about the industry, and sales, and even meeting more and more people in the community.

3. MARRIAGE+DOMINOES=FUN.

This past month or so, my wife and I have been playing Dominoes on Fridays. After dinner either at my parents house or mine, Luis and Dawn, along with Rachel and I have found a new addiction. Mexican Train Dominoes. Seriously. If you havent played yet you need to come over to my house. I will teach you, and you will love it.

4. And now I leave you with these:

Mustache March and New Wings for Old Things

Greetings Ladies and Gents.

Welcome to Mustache March. Where upper lips everywhere get a little warmer during this brisk Michigan weather. I hope you all (obviously men......) are going to participate. I would love to see some nice stache' pics at the end of this month.


My story Disciple Six is now taking on new life, thanks to Geoffrey Haney. My story arc for the series is going through a little bit of retooling, and some good writing is being added. All is the same though, so do not worry, Disciple Six is still the same beautiful story it has always been, just now told with a little bit more description.

While that is happening, an artist named Kevin who lives in Cali and I have been talking about him doing the art for the project. Things have been going very smooth in this process, but part of me also thinks I could find a great local artist (kendall/grand valley) who would be a short drive away. Do you know of anyone? hmm........


So with Geoff co-writing my creation, and Kevin possibly doing some sketches, hopefully shortly some of these things will be coming together nicely. (for the purpose of an image submission)

The stories and Characters that I have for D6 are going to be some of the most tragic and compelling ideas I have had.




Little Levi Drake will be with us soon. My wife is beyond sick of being prego. we just pray that he is healthy and born soon! we have about a month to go so it will be a little bit. Until then we shall paint rooms, and built play sets in the yard.

We also bought Sophia Grey a car bed. Man that thing is nice. And she can't fall out of it.

Ella is getting big. And really good at drawing (she gets that from my side)


Hopefully things warm up and everyone will come over for a grill out!


PEACE!

My takes on Baseball and Monopoly Money

Ok. It has been a little while. But these past few days have got me all hot and bothered and I need to do a little venting. so here you are, and here I am. Thanks for listening ahead of times, its days like this that I am glad you are here.

BASEBALL. steroids. Seems like hand and hand lately. In an attempt to help you understand how I feel about the whole situation as a whole, I will explain that I have two opinions. And there are two sides to every story.

I am not for the use of illegal substances. Obviously it is wrong. For the past handful of years I have found it to be comical how the excuse for using ILLEGAL substances within the laws of the U.S. have been "it wasn't Illegal in baseball....." lol. seriously? because it wasn't written in the baseball rules, that makes it ok. Did you know that the baseball games/teams and players are in the U.S.???

and then there is the other side of it. Lets say HGH is good for people. Doctors are already using it to help common people like you and me get stronger and/or healthier. (people like us who do NOT actually abuse our bodies with our occupation) Are you telling me that steroids like this should be DENIED to people, that their occupation is to ABUSE and use there own body to the highest performance possible.

seems sort of backwards. ex:

well Jon, what do you do? ohhh you sell glasses to people. oh ok. and a bit of indoor men's volleyball. ok. well, we are going to get you on this steroid, and hopefully it will help get those knees back into good working form. remember to wear those knee pads.

well Jon, what do you do? ohhh you play a professional sport? oh wow thats cool. you work out, and train, and give 100% every time out on the floor, leaving everything. and training your body to work in PEAK physical ability? well, we do have some steroids that could help you (ALOT) but we really shouldn't be giving you this stuff. cause well, your body needs to fix it self without these medical discoveries. It compromises the game. I know I know, we give this stuff to everyone who isn't an athlete, but. we want our sports to be "pure".


I know I am being very general. I am talking about HGH and things of that nature more than I am talking about steroids to a certain degree.

now on to the game of life.


Can we make things simple. For one second. So you are telling me that we (as a country) are going to MAKE more money (that doesn't come from anywhere) and we are going to give it to everyone hoping that life gets better?

seriously.

My personal statement is: We are too weak of a country to admit that we are wrong, and we are going to make life very hard for our future generations, instead of us just dealing with the problems right now.

It is the cycle of LIFE.

if it is broken. it needs fixing.

not a band aid. fixing.

Personally I think a fall flat on our faces would do this country some damn good.
people would stop complaining about gays, churches, and politics.

they would be united in ONE crisis. MONEY.

not pretend money.

real money.


Guess what is going to happen. Guaranteed. People will get checks. and they will do what they did before. they will pay off debt. they will help themselves.

that is not helping the economy.

that is giving a get out of jail free card.


its a big difference.

again. I am all for helping people. But to literally say, "I am going to help the CURRENT American people, and in 10-15 when I am not president and stuff goes wrong, I wont be here."

I care about my grand kids. they are not here yet.

I would much rather live a shitty life. a life of hard times than them.


that is what I want.

Tattoo

Most of you know that I am very artistic, and am torn between staying ink-free, and getting tattoos. lots of them.

I finally got one. a while ago. All because of something that happened to me.

lets relive that moment by sharing a myspace blog from 2 years ago.

enjoy.


piano for me.

A staff member that owned a keyboard let us know one day that the chord was broken. and we could no longer practice on it. focusing on piano and music this 3 months before heading to africa i was saddened by this.... fast forward to later that afternoon, when i was reading the book "is that really you God" by loren cunningham, founder of YWAM. and i stopped and thought, lets pray for it. there were three other people in the room, amy and matt, who also are in the piano track, and stephanie. they agreed with an ok, and we began to pray, just asking that God would put the thoughts of donating a piano, or maybe let us know where we could find one to practice on.. those kinds of prayers......as soon as we were done, matt continued to look online for free pianos and we all continued with our day, for about a minute. and i thought...... NO God. with in a minute of praying God told me to go walk. (keep in mind i have crutches for my ankle :( ) No God... i dont want to do that i thought. and stephanie said what are you thinking. "god just told me to go walk, and go door to door looking for a piano."God has told me to walk before, but i have never listened.."go" she said. NO i replied. thats rediculous.so i opened up my bible to look for verses on needs, because we felt like we needed this piano. i went to the concordance and the word OBEY jumped out at me......DANG IT. he wants me to go."i have to go" i said to the three of them.stephanie came with me.as we walked down the block i had no idea what i was doing. it felt like the stupidest thing in the world...that house? she said.No. i replied......and then we looked across the road at a house with a guy in the window.lets go talk to him. she said.OK. i just felt more comfortable acually knowing someone was home.it was our first stop..as we walked up, the man, who's name was Tidy came out, walking toward his truckthis is when it got uncomfortable.literally stumbling over words i crutch up saying.excuse me sir. hi, how are you.... i was just wondering, if you know of some where i could get a piano/?? or if someone wanted to donate one for us to practice on. and a bit about what we were doing.the first words he said were "why did you guys come so late!"lol.steph and i looked at each other. and tidy grabbed his phone to make some calls, he explained that he is a painter, and he was painting a house back in november, and an old lady kept telling him to "take this paino, take it out, i dont want it anymore."but he never took it cause he had no use for it, "what do i want a paino for, he said.this guy was calling friends, and even the operator trying to find this ladys number. steph looked at me and said, you know what, even if this doesnt work out, we still met this really nice guy, and hes doing this for us. its a great experience. yeah, i thought. i did listen to god. this is really nice........and then, all of a sudden while he was still calling people a moving truck pulled up to the house next door. and it had a HUGE PICTURE OF A PIANO on the side.......i looked at steph, and laughed. i was listening to god. he had let me know that. the men simply got out of the truck, smiled, went into the house, came out 30 seconds later, smiled, and left. the only thing they did was check, the entry on how they were going to get something out....so those guys, that day, decided just to stop, check on something and then leave?i dont know of to many movers who stop and check out things. it was odd. but, i am thankful that the day they decided to, i decided to listen to God.Tidy would get back to us. and i crutched home with a smile.day 2 we learned about tidys life, family and some struggles. and asked if we could pray for him at home.day 3 we brought him leftover enchaladas and he have us the number to alice morgan.we visited alice the next day.and brought a piano home the next.there is more story, but. i just wanted to let you know. that listening to Gods voice is something i am learning more about. and i am thankful for that.if you have any questions or comments, let me know.just a little story. :) that happened to me..and i have a piano now.



Cool huh.

PEACE!

Sanding Floors and Opening Doors

This past Saturday I spent most of the day sanding a wood floor in my newly purchased home. It did take a long time, all I had was a hand sander, and a quart of stain. Well, several hours later, and some creative thinking by myself, we have a beautiful stylish floor (still in need of 2 finishing coats)

I am looking forward to all kinds of small projects like this around the house that put our little finger print on it. Truly making it our "home"

Geoff told me yesterday that he went to see the movie "inkheart" and said it was great. He also said that there are some similarities with this story, and the one that we have written in theworldwithinmywalls.blogspot.com Fantasy ideas are like that I think. I believe most ideas have been written, but I also believe that how you tell a story, what the characters are like, and what kind of plot/motives/"little things" that are also in it that make it truly original. Hopefully that is what we have done.

(Side note: unlike the mixed reviews it got, "City of Ember" rated PG, was an AMAZINGLY creative movie, and i really enjoyed everything about it. Sheck it out!!!!)


New ideas like writing a book about my father have started to invade my mind. I think that a book about him growing up, along with his parents and their story would be really really cool. (this idea will definitely be expanded on later)

I have so much going on in my mind its really hard to describe, or put down on keyboard. ;)
My family is wonderful as always. Homelife is great.

I am a fan of:
bacon on pizza
kurt warner
honda elements
sophia grey
butch walker (3/7/9)
wood floors
heroes
funny internet clips
jim rome

I am not a fan of:
vegetables
eli manning
Envoys
this weather
espn.com
lost
people who think Obama represents them,
when Obama does not have anything in common with them at all

putting aside time forgot / forgod

Why are we so "caught up"?

For me, it almost always feels like there are not enough hours in the day for me to even live. On a day like today, the sun is shinning bright, and the snow is beautiful, I wish I could pull my girls around in a sled, take them to the park, and then home for hot chocolate. But here I am working. It puzzles me.
We work hard, to provide right? People work harder, and more, because of cost of living. House, car, phone, internet, cell phone, insurance, cable, food, clothes, toys..... the list goes on and on. Did we do this to ourselves? All I wish for is more time with my family. I have a blessed life, but I sometimes question my motives for things.
If I was to work part time at Target. Rachel work part time at JC, and we completely CRUSH our cost of living. Eff the cell phones, eff the internet (which I am on ;) eff cable, eff 2 cars, eff toys and clothes (only from goodwill), Guess what I just did. I just started living a "slower" life, a life with time for family, and God. I have killed my consumming addiction, and I have TIME. Time should not be wasted. We WASTE so much time on things that don't matter. I have to admitt, I love watching the NBA and I haven't in almost a month. Its KILLING me. but does it matter? I tell you one thing, I have spent more time dancing with my daughters, and more time sitting at the table talking to my wife this past month than I really did before. And thats what I like. Its so hard to try and be a hippy in a country like ours.

What matters to you? LIVE that. I have a motto that I have always wanted to live by, and now, realizing these past few years I have been able to. "Live a life worth writing down. Live a life worth reading to your children....."

I am by no way saying quite your job! eff america!!!

I am just saying that when walking daily with God, I feel like my eyes see more. I feel like my eyes have more of a "birds eye view" on things.

Do you believe in God? Really? Like really really believe in the Bible? what it says???? Then what the HECK are we doing? If you really believe that the Bible is historically acurate, and that revelations is an "idea" of what is to come in the end of times.... THAT means that we, us, NOW, is a part of that. we are a little sliver of time in the Bible. All the heroes, and Gods people in there.... man they lived crazy cool lives. I want that.

soooo.... now that I am done with my ramble, I will leave on this note:

I know I should make more time for God.

I want to be a Bible character.

I pray for good time management.

A New Season of Old Things

I remember a time where I had a good "image" of who I wanted to be as I got older. Everyone wants to be cool, or smart, or good looking.... But I remember having an image of myself in middle school of who I wanted to become when I was a man. I don't know what other way to describe it, only by saying if I was to make every right decision in my life thats how it would have turned out. Well. I have been thinking about that lately. About the man I have become. I have to fully admitt that there were a couple years there that not only am I not proud of myself. But I can actually remember thinking the words "what happened to that little boy, with all the promise in the world, to create, serve God firstmost, and live a crazy life books are written about...."

Well. God has completely taken over my life, in a good way. As much as sometimes I wish I did something different, or chose a different lifestyle, or occupation. I fully realize, and understand that God has the best things for me, and to trust that. Now I reflect on my life. I have a beautiful wife, two wonderful daughters, a boy on the way. Lets not forget Lennon. A new house. A creative partner that drives me, and we work great together. THe list goes on and on.

All because of God. He has given me so much. I look at my life now, and I think "I still have plenty of time to prove to middle school me, 'don't worry little mattybones, you are not going to be dissapointed with your life, you will create, serve God, and live a crazy cool life....'" I mean, look what I have done in 3 years time:

Lived in California
Lived in Africa
Lived in Michigan
Made a Baby ;)
Got Married to a Model
Bought a House
Wrote a Book with a great friend
Sell Cars!
Worked at Blockbuster

I mean, seriously?!?! Thats all me. Let me correct that. That's all God. all because of him. I have been blessed greatly.

So I would like to dedicate this new year, the year of 2009 to "Old Things." To become the man that little me would be sooooo proud to become. There is still a chance for all of us.

2009. A Year of Passion.



Thanks all. Just to let you know also, new posts of characters, ideas and many more thoughts. All coming from MARS soon.