Update on Me.

It's been 2.5 years since I've written anything about me.  God blessed Amanda and I with Baylie when I stopped writing in here and I started writing letters to her on tobayliewithlove.blogspot.com.  

I need to take more time to write about myself.  Don't get me wrong, Baylie is my whole world, but I need to write about what's going on with me personally sometimes too.

I don't even know where to begin.  I still work as a branch manager at Huntington bank and I love my job.  It's just like any other job though and has it's moments, but it helps provide for my family and I couldn't ask for anything more. I recently changed branches - my first few years at Huntington were spent at our Southridge branch and now I am managing the downtown branch.  It has its advantages and disadvantages.  I was so used to my customers at the other branch and I have to start all over, but it's a lot closer to home and there are no Saturdays downtown so that's nice.  I also like the downtown environment.  I think it's all going to work out for the best in the end.

Amanda and I will be married 8 years this summer.  We still live in our same house in Charleston and still have Rusty.  He's our baby boy.  Baylie and Rusty are very jealous of each other and it's so cute.  Baylie doesn't want Rusty to look at her or play with her toys or sit on her blanket or numerous other things and if we show Baylie too much attention, Rusty will come and nudge us with his nose to let us know that he's there.  Amanda is a stay at home mom now.  She decided after Baylie was close to a year old that she was going to stay at home with her.  I think it's one of the best decisions we've ever made.  Amanda sacrificed a lot, but i'm pretty sure she's content with the decision she made.  

I want to give an update on what's going on around here now, too.  Recently, freedom industries had a chemical spill into the Elk River and it go into WV American Water's treatment facility so a DO NOT USE alert went out to 9 counties including Kanawha and Boone.  It just ended on Thursday so we were without running water for a week.  We could use it to flush the toilet, but that's all.  Many people are still scared to use the water for anything so they aren't ingesting it at all.  The CDC actually said that pregnant women shouldn't ingest it at all.  Amanda and I are not using it to drink or cook.  We are bathing in it, but that concerns us some.  So far we haven't had any issues, thank the Lord.  We are washing dishes in it as well, because using bottled water for that was becoming cumbersome.  We are drinking and cooking with bottled water and Rusty is only drinking bottled water as well.  

I think that's a pretty good update on what's going on with me for now.  I'm getting ready to run out to the store to get some milk and a few things and have a lunch with a friend.  Amanda and Baylie are sitting at the table playing with play dough and Baylie is getting mad at mommy for not doing it how she wants it done.  I couldn't ask for a better life! Thank you Lord for your blessings on my family even when we don't deserve them.

Jonathan

I am a Smooth Criminal

I didn't even know I was speeding, I said, but to no avail.  I was cruising to work and was behind other vehicles I thought.  In fact, I know I was somewhere close to other vehicles going the same speed or close to the same speed.  I could see them ahead of me.  I guess he can't pull us all over.   You see, I usually leave the house around 7:15 on Mondays to make it to work around 7:40 to 7:45, but on this Monday, July 11, 2011, I had a meeting down town so I didn't leave until 8:30.  I sat through the meeting as best as I could (adult ADHD doesn't help much) and when it was over I got my parking pass validating and headed to Southridge.  It was a couple minutes until 11:00 when I saw him heading towards Charleston on 119.  I was just coming up to the Jefferson Road exit and less than a mile to my exit.  You would have thought I was an escaped murder by the way he came after me.  He turned his car sideways and drove through the medium like I was anyway.  By the time his back wheels found the payment he rubber in both lanes.  I thought for sure he was radioed for an accident or something, but of course, he was shortly pulling me over.  I was convinced that I had unknowingly ran someone off the road or worse.
 I was starting to sweat as he came up to my window.  I knew the cuffs would soon be on me.  "Can I help you, officer?" "License and registration, please."  "Do you realize that you were just doing 65 miles per hour in a posted 50 mile and hour zone?"  "No sir, I didn't realize it at all, is that all I did?" "What do you mean?" "I thought something else must have happened by the way you spun through the medium to come after me." Of course this statement wasn't further commented on and the next thing I know I was holding a $165 ticket.

For the next 4 weeks I called everyone I knew to try and work some magic to get out of the ticket, but apparently a city of Charleston ticket is hard to get out of.  I was determined to not have this ticket go against my driving record and make my already expensive auto insurance even higher so off to court I went.

Tuesday, August 30th at 3:30 was the hearing.  I was determined to be early, but one thing lead to another at work and I finally parked in the metered parking at the Charleston Municipal Auditorium at precisely 3:30 and put 4 quarters into the meter for 2 hours of time so after my 5 minute walk I opened the doors at 3:35.  The judges clerk, noticeably upset with my tardiness, was already calling out names of the "defendants".  I was amazed at the number of people.  Including those in orange, there was well over 100 and me being cursed with a last name starting with "R" was forced to wait through 3/4 of all the cases.

I realized after about 5 minutes into the proceedings that I may have made a mistake and maybe should have just paid the ticket in the first place.  The judge took those in orange first and as she called the first lady up a Charleston PD removed her cuffs.  She raised her right hand and plead not guilty to simple possession of cocaine.  I was shocked.  I thought this was traffic court!  Five additional people plead not guilty to drug possession, weapon possession, trespassing, building code violations, and battery.  I was relieved when those were over.  I was starting to wonder what people were thinking of me.  I did have a suit on which was far more than most of the people in the room.  Two hours later I finally hear the judge say, "Jonathan Roop, please approach the bench."  You see, after two hours of sitting there listening to all of the other accused argue with her I had all but figured out my entire case.  I was so sure of my self I knew I could easily win this.  And here is how it went down.

Judge:  "You have been charged with speeding 65-50 which is punishable by a $100 fine and all applicable court costs and no jail time." Because the punishment consists of no jail time then you will not be afforded a public defender." "How do you plead?"

Me: "Before for I....."

Judge: "Guilty or Not Guilty"

Me:  "I was hoping...."

Judge:  (holding up her hand)  "Guilty or not guilty, son."

Me:  "I guess guilty, but I was...."

Judge:  "Since you have confessed to the crime then you need to sign here, here, and initial here.  You will be assessed all fines, but I will allow you to take the defensive driving course so it will not be put on your record at the DMV." "Please step out of the gate."

Two hours of practicing and I didn't even get to tell my side of the story at all.  I couldn't believe it.  I was so sure of myself.  I knew I would leave there and have no ticket at all.  Once again I was wrong. haha
To end this quickly, I walked out of the court room 2 hours and 10 minutes later.  I was walking to my car and saw the little parking natzi putting a parking ticket on my window.  I was 10 minutes late for crying out loud.  I ran to him and told him my whole story of what I had been through.  I told him how I was mixed in with drug dealers and wife beaters, but that wasn't good enough.  Five more dollars down the drain.  LOL.  Oh well.  I hope this gave someone a good laugh.

My Dad & Me...

It didn't take me but a moment to realize that I should have been there years before.  Every year on Easter Sunday my wife and I make the trip back to James Creek to spend the night with my parents and to go to Easter Sunday Service with them.  We have been doing this for the last 7 years.  I have never been to an Easter Sunday service at my own church, Maranatha Fellowship.  Usually, we just get up early in the morning and drive down to attend services and then have dinner together and we drive home that evening.  This year was different.

I think I have written about our dog Rusty before.  Rusty has completely changed our lives.  We don't have a child of our own yet (we are still 19 weeks away), but Rusty is definitely the closest thing that we can imagine a child to be like.  He has taken our heart like we would never have believed.  He is so spoiled.  He is so needy. He is so loving.  He's scared of thunderstorms.  He needs his food delivered to wherever he is lying (which is normally in bed with us).  He can't rest without touching one of us.  We have totally fallen in love with our "son," Rusty.

This year we had to pack our things and drive to mom and dad's the night before Easter because we didn't want Rusty to have to stay home alone all day on Sunday while we drove down for the day.  We packed up Saturday morning and with Rusty in stow we made our trek to James Creek.  Rusty loved being able to run around the yard all day.  Mom and dad's yard is considerably larger than ours and it is fenced in so he could have more fun.  He was so worn out that he slept right between us in my old full size bed all night long.   When we all woke up, Rusty had a nice puddle of drool on the blanket.  Amanda and I... well, we didn't sleep quite as nicely.

Saturday evening we played games, as is commonplace, when we are there.  After playing a round of Scatergories, dad realized that he had to return to work that night to work up a train sample that needed to be done that weekend.  Dad won't work on Sundays so this was his only time to get it done. Dad went into the bedroom and changed into his work clothes and came to tell mom that he was sorry and wouldn't be gone more than a couple hours at most.  He called the boss that was on duty, Carl was his name I think, and was headed out the door.  I then thought to myself that in all my 29 years I had never seen what my dad actually does.  I have listened to him tell countless tales about the guys at work and the things they do, but I had never actually been there myself.   Dad has been talking a lot lately of retirement and this thrills me because I think dad has worked very hard over the years and needs to.  I know my opportunities to actually see dad "in action" were limited so I asked if I could join him.  I think he was shocked that I actually wanted to, which was sad to me because my dad has always been my hero and I want to know everything about him, but I guess I never had asked to go to work with him.

I threw on the only clothes that I had besides my Easter attire, which was Abercrombie sweat pants (bad idea), an old grey t-shirt of dad's, and my white Nike Shox (another bad idea) and off we went.  I remember when we got in dad's truck, the radio was set to 107.9 and an old man whom I could instantly tell and dad later confirmed had been on the radio for many years was witnessing for our lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as he played the occasional, southern gospel song.  Dad and I listened to him and had small talk on the short 10 minute drive to work.  Dad parked in his usual spot and opened his locker to get out his work boots and off we went to check in.  Checking in was nothing like I imagined.  I check in on "FourSquare" everywhere I go and it pinpoints my whereabouts by geo tagging my location on my Iphone.  Patriot Coals version of checking in was placing your hardhat against a machine that registered that Roop, James was "ready for action" at 11:11 pm April, 24th.  Dad is 4th in seniority there.

We got in the company truck that they recently gave dad to drive back and forth to get his samples in.  He walked to get them for nearly 25 years.  Dad had to collect samples from a couple different locations and I wish I could explain how all of it worked, but I really can't.  It's actually quite interesting, and It' something about every 10 train cars that are loaded have to have a small amount of coal from them so all of the coal in that shipment can be tested for ash, moisture, etc so they can sell it for more money.  Dad collected these samples and took them back to his lab to actually do the "sampling."  I noticed instantly that dad is very meticulous in his work.  I saw where many steps could have been taken to shorten the amount of time it took to do the sample and I would be willing to bet that many men would have taken them, but not my dad.  Dad worked with precision and he worked quickly.  I wish I was half the man my dad is.  Those sample bags were so heavy; I could barely pick them up and dad was just throwing them around with one hand like it was nothing.  The heaviest thing I pick up daily is a toss up between a stapler and a group of folders.  Dad finished his work diligently and went to check out, but before he did he decided to show me around.  He took me into the preparation plant and showed me what was happening on each floor.  I must admit that I was a little surprised at what all went on just to get the coal ready for shipment.  I never realized that it is that complex.  Each floor of this building had screens, chains, chemicals, belts, and I could go on and on.  It was eye opening to see all of this.  There was even a huge room with computers and joysticks which was right up my alley.  Dad seemed happy to show me around and to teach me about what he did everyday.  He never missed an opportunity to tell me how blessed he was and to talk about Jesus during all of this his talks that night.

 The night wasn't so much about learning about the coal mines to me, but more about my dad and me.  It was one of those moments in life to me that really mean something.  That moment in time with my dad was special.  I was watching my dad teach me lessons about work, life, and always teaching me about the love of Jesus and how no matter what kind of job we have or how good our lives seem to be, they are nothing without having Jesus first in them.  I felt like I had to get this in writing and though I'll never forget it, it was burning to be written down.

Rusty

On August 22, 2006 I married my wife on the island of Oahu in Hawaii in a private ceremony.  It was one of the best days of my life.  The sun was high in the sky with a slight breeze.  It was around 3:00 pacific time. I don't remember there being a cloud in the sky.  I was a nervous wreck despite the fact that they only people there were Amanda, the preacher, videographer, photographer, and me.  The ceremony lasted approximately 15 minutes, but I'll never forget them.  I remember in detail the entire ceremony.  Now, lets fast forward 4 years later.....

August 22, 2010

I always try to do exciting things for Amanda for her birthday, our anniversary, Christmas, etc.  This year I thought it would be a great idea to make a scavenger hunt, but instead of leading her around the house like I have before, I thought it would be a good idea to lead her around Charleston.  I hid clues behind stop signs, on top of an atm machine at a bank.  I actually gave a clue to a clerk at a convenience store.  I think Amanda really enjoyed running around town trying to find her clues.  One clue in particular though turned out to be an unexpected surprise for Amanda and I both and will continue to delight us for years to come.

I hid a clue across a bridge under some rocks.  I should have never been there, but it was starting to rain and it was getting late.  It was August 21 around 10:00 pm.  I had one clue left and I wanted to get home to hang out with Amanda for a while before bed. We usually go to bed fairly early on Saturday nights because we go to the early service at our church, Maranatha, (mfctoday.org) and the service starts at 9:00.  The bridge that I crossed and the rocks that I hid the slip of paper under was at the Kanawha County animal shelter.  It never entered my mind what would happen the next day when she found the clue.

You see, Amanda has never been much of an animal lover.  She never had animals growing up and just never really cared about them.  She always assumed that dogs were dirty and barked all the time.  On Sunday afternoon, our anniversary, Carlie and Katie came to stay with us for the day.  Amanda loves Carlie and Katie like they are our own children and honestly they are :).  Amanda found the clue fairly easily and thought it was clever of me to hide it at the animal shelter.  ( I have been lobbying for a dog for the last 4 years).  Anyway, when we got home Amanda was telling Carlie and Katie about the scavenger hunt and where all the clues were hidden.  Of course the animal shelter came up.  We decided to go take a look at all the animals just for fun.  We have done this a few times over the years, but always just looked and left.   This time was different.  

Rusty is a Golden Retriever mix.  He looks just like a full bread Golden Retriever, but smaller and he has a white paw.  He was lying in his cage all curled up like a cat.  I didn't even notice him to be honest, but Amanda did and for some reason unbeknownst to be liked him.  She never really said much about it until I asked if I could take a Dachshund for a walk.  I took her out and she was a nice pleasant dog, but didn't really show a lot of interest in us.  She was just smelling around and minding her own business.  I took her back in and Amanda totally shocked me when she asked if we could take the Golden Retriever for a walk.  We did and the rest is, as they say, history.  Rusty jumped all over us and ran between our legs.  He sat on command and shook hands.  He was completely trained.  I didn't even have to beg and Amanda let me adopt him.  I am not sure if the girls had her heart soft by getting to stay with us, they barely get to, or if it was an act of God, but we paid our $70 and were proud owners of a Golden Retriever mix, Rusty. 

I am very eager to write about our many adventures with Rusty during the last 2 months, but I don't have the time right now.  I will save those stories for another day.  However, Rusty is like our child.  We love him very much and look forward to many years with this dog.  He is truly our Marlee.  Here are some pictures until next time.....

Vacation is over :(

I always have the best of intentions on writing on here, but I never find the time.  My wife has been on a cleaning spree lately and she was cleaning out one of our spare rooms today and I was outside mowing grass and I got really thirsty so I came in to get a bottle of water and saw tears running down her eyes and I saw her reading a journal I used to actually write in instead of type.  I told her she needed to quit reading my private journal. haha.  Anyway, that's why I am on here now. 

We just got home from Myrtle Beach and just like all vacations, I am sad to be back home.  We were there for 6 days and 5 nights and didn't do much but lie on the beach, but I had a blast.  I was able to play in the ocean for a while and then come back to my chair and read.  I love love love to read a good book.  Thanks to Erin Crouch for recommending one of the books I read there, "The Maze Runner" which started out a little slow I thought, but surprised me.  I also found out that book 2 of the trilogy is already out and I'll be picking it up at the library as soon as possible. 



We went to the Dixie Stampede while we were at the beach of course the chicken was excellent.  We also ate at Nakato Japanese restaurant and the River City Cafe and a few others places, but these are the ones that stand out.  We also played a put-put, which is predictable, and walked around barefoot landing and Broadway at the Beach.  We watched Toy Story 3 in the IMAX theater and not only was the screen amazing, the movie was even better and it brought tears to my eyes. 

Well, it's time to watch our newest Netflix delivery.  It's another one that Amanda picked out so I am not that excited about it, but it might be okay.  I think the name of it is "Leap Year."

I'll post a few pics of our beach trip below.

2010

It's been sometime since I have made the time to write down a few thoughts. I love reading my friends blogs and wish I had more time to do the same, but I find that their writings are more interesting and flow better than mine. I have been considering doing a video blog and seeing how that would turn out, but I haven't gotten around to that yet either. I hope to be a little more diligent about it in the future.

If you haven't heard already, Amanda and I bought our first house on October 31st this year. We were so excited to get in here. I was a little scared of having so much debt hanging over our heads, but the longer I am here the more I forget that I owe $130k. It feels like we are still renting... well except for the fact that I can't call my landlord every time we have a problem. I am quickly turning into a plumbing and heating expert. I'll post a few pictures later in the blog.

I think I have written on here since I started my new job at Fifth Third Bank, but if not then I should tell you that I am a personal banker there. I work in Kanawha City and it is the best job I've

had so far. I definitely want to stay in banking for a while. I enjoy talking to people about their money and helping them when I can.

I have been able to get a lot more involved in church over the past few months, too. It all started last year when Amanda signed up to play on the women's softball team. I helped coach the team and ever since then we have been involved a lot more. I now coach a team for Upward basketball and volunteer to help run the league each Saturday. It has sure been a sacrifice, but I love every minute of it. I just started on the church bowling league and am enjoying it. I hope to start getting more involved in prayer groups and even get a Bible study at my house once a week; at least that is what I hope for. Our church is AWESOME. If you have never been to Maranatha then I strongly encourage you to check it out. God has definitely blessed 2910 Kanawha Terrace.

Lazy Day

We didn't go to church today. Past Wright is on vacation and we have been on the road a lot lately and we thought we would take a day and stay home. We have really been lazy today. We stayed in bed until around 12:30 and then the suddenlink tech came to fix our Internet. He only had to replace an ethernet cable, which I could have done myself, but I didn't realize that was the problem. It was hilarious watching him trying to poke around on my IMac though. It was obvious he's never used one before.

I did go out and clean the inside of the car after later this afternoon. I swept it out and shined up the dash with armor-all. I found a set of keys that I thought I lost months ago. They were under the carpet, under the passenger seat. There is only one small vent hole under there that they could have squeezed through and somehow they did. While I was outside, Amanda made us some barbecue sandwiches. I definitely ate too much. But, it was excellent.

Now, I am sitting here watching Barbershop (I love this movie) and tying on here while Amanda watches her soap opera thing. I hate those shows. We are going to watch a movie we rented earlier called "International" as soon as I get offline. I hope to get Netflix again soon. We had Blockbuster's online service, but we didn't seem to use it enough to justify paying for it, but now we watch movies a lot more and I want to get Netflix this time. My friend, Jesse, told me to get it because I get download movies straight to my television with it. I definitely want to do that.

Okay, now it's time to watch the movie. I just reread everything on FDIC coverages. I get asked about them about 10 times daily and I figured it's time I know more about it. It's actually pretty interesting. I can now feel more confident the next time I get the question.