Sunday, December 30th, 2012

Namaste,

Well I left Edmond at 5:30am Friday morning and by 6:00am, I realized I had left my wallet at home.... I was back on the highway by 6:15 and things were going great until I hit a snow storm outside of Clinton. It was slow going until I reached the Texas line. I went the speed limit all the way through the Texas panhandle to prove to my buddy Mike, and my ex-boss Tony Fernandez that it is possible to drive I-40 through Texas and not get pulled over. I should have stopped for gas in Amarillo, but I push on to New Mexico... I headed north on 104 through Tucumcari... It was the scenic route and I'm all about scenic!!! I rolled into Las Vegas, New Mexico around 1:00 and then on into Taos. I went to the Taos Ski Valley to scout out my climb, and when I went to talk to the park rangers, they told me Wheeler was closed due to avalanche danger. They suggested I try Williams Lake.... I drove back to Taos and found a little restaurant for dinner and then looked for a hotel room. I had every intention of camping at Bull of the woods, but without a snow plow I wasn't getting there. I found a room and loaded for a hike to Williams lake. I got up at 5:30 and headed out about 6:45. My truck said it was -14 outside and it felt like it. I found some coffee and then headed to the Ski Valley. I parked and headed two miles straight uphill to the Williams Lake Trail head.... I continued up another two mikes to the lake... Well I think there was a lake under the snow and ice. I hustled back down and went into a restaurant at the ski village to grab some nutrition. I got in the truck and headed out.... I took the Chama Pass to Colorado, and then Pagosa Springs to Durango. I checked into the hotel and then went north over the Silverton Pass to the quaint town of Silverton. I love this little mining town. The pass was very icy and I kept thinking if anyone was with me I would have turned back! I spent about an hour and a half in Silverton before the sun started to go down and I figured I better head back. I took it very slow and deliberate getting back. I came to the room and changed clothes before trying to find somewhere for dinner. I found a spot at the bar at Carvers Brew House. I met some very friendly folks from all around the country. I came back to the room, and booked a ride on the Durango to Silverton Narrow Gauge Train for this morning. I got up and headed south to Starbucks before boarding the train. I sat in the open air car all day. I knew I wanted to do that so I wore my climbing clothes.... I took 500 pictures and really enjoyed most of the trip. The thing that drove me crazy were people hanging off the train and getting in my shots. We call the photobombs or idiots! When the train rolled back into town I jumped in the truck and headed up to Vallencia Lake. It was frozen over and really kinda blah.... I came back to town, changed into a nice sweater and headed back to Carvers for dinner. I met another group of great people (You probably know I never met a stranger!) and then back to the room to down load pictures. I am headed out for Moab in the morning... I would like to leave at the buttcrack of dawn, but we are expecting a foot of snow here. I will just have to see what it's like when I wake up.

I love you all!

Mat

Thursday, December 27th, 2012

Namaste,

Been swamped busy! Work has really been pretty good! We are full, have been full, and will continue to be full, so we have been pretty lucky. We have just been maintaining our numbers and setting records for census, and gross revenue! I have been doing quite a few shoots in-between Christmas shopping, Christmas parties, having dinner with family and friends etc...

We were suppose to have a giant blizzard Christmas Eve... So Jordan and Josh came up and we opened up presents. I got a new back-pack and some new snow shoes! (I bought them myself!) Well the giant blizzard turned into some snow flurries. So I ended up going into work Christmas morning and serving breakfast. I also went and picked up some employees who were afraid to drive to work. I came home and we had a big breakfast. Trey talked me into playing some video games with him..... We went out to Chad and Shannon Lovett's for Christmas dinner. That was really nice.

I am leaving at 5:00am tomorrow morning and heading to Taos, New Mexico to do some climbing. When I come down from There I will head over to Durango, Colorado and Climb Windom Peak, before heading over to Moab, Utah and doing some climbing and hiking around the La Sal Mountains. I am excited to get away for a while. I have the truck loaded and will be camping in sub-zero temperatures several nights. This will be the biggest trip I have done in the last year.

I love you all!

Mat

Monday, December 17, 2012

Namaste,

The wekk went somewhere quickly???? Time is flying by.... I had a really busy week. There was so much to get accomplished that I had to get my clothes ready a couple days in advance. For those of you that don't know.... The minute I walk in the house, I lay my stuff out for the next day. I don't want to jump up and scramble around looking for something to wear. Everyday for me is well thought out with shirt, Pants, Tie, and matching socks.... For instance. The sweater I am going to wear today.... It is olive green and I made the mistake of buying a pair of socks to match it! The mistake was going to a high end men's store and not asking how much they were before giving them my credit card! ;-) Lesson learned! I was laying out all of my clothes and could not find my socks. I looked everywhere.... This is one bad thing about having a 14 year old help you put laundry away. It took me 30 minutes to find my olive socks in his mothers drawer.


Monday was a typical Monday at work. Putting all of my numbers together and trying to figure out who is coming and going for the week. Monday Night, I shot the Edmond Santa Fe Varsity Football banquet... WOW! They went all out on this thing... It was at the University of Central Oklahoma, and even though the presentations were awesome..... The media for the Freshman banquet was better! (Thank you very much!) The banquet was great and the food was wonderful, but I was already exhausted and it was only Monday!

Tuesday at lunch we had our department Christmas party. I really surprised a couple of them! I even made Diane get teary with the gift I got her. I took pictures of her boys without her knowing and had them printed, and framed. Tuesday night I had our Marketing group Christmas party... We met at 4:30 and the party was suppose to be over at 6:30, but it was closer to 7:00.... The only problem with that was I was suppose to be at Muay Thai at 7:00 so I walked into the boxing gym wearing pink! I think some of the tough guys were questioning my manhood, but they found out shortly thereafter!

Wednesday was a busy day at work.... I started at OU and ended at OU... I have been spending a ton of time there. Wednesday night I did a little shopping. I am almost done, but will still find a reason to shop!

Thursday was another long day! Work, of course keeps us hopping; However, we have been full for so long that we had 16 people on the waiting list. We are planning admissions two days in advance. I left the office at 4:30 and stopped by Khol's to look at tie's for Friday's party. I got to the Bricktown Brewery and participated in the Nursing Center Christmas Party. We had a really good time, until about 10:00 when I became the "Daddy" and had to make sure people got to where they were suppose to be.

Friday was another big party day! I didn't wear my party clothes to work, but changed after everyone left. I worked for two weeks on my outfit! Trey had his Christmas Orchestra Concert, so I invited my good friend Ivy Tran as my date! We had a really good time, except the fact that everyone started putting their drinks on my tab! Yeah.... I have some payback to take care of! I crashed when I got home.

The weekend was fun. Saturday morning I got all of my house work done. Trey and I had lunch in bricktown and then went to the All-College Basketball game. It was OU/aTm at the Chesapeake. We came home and then I started getting ready for a big Christmas party at my good friend Jodi's house! We did not leave there until well after midnight! It was a blast!

Sunday was lazy day! After church I kinda passed out for a couple of hours. I did some grocery shopping, put dinner in the crock pot and then watched a little football, before heading out to do a little Christmas shopping! I ended up buying everything I needed online! I got a new pair of snowshoes, and some new ski pants for my upcoming trip. I have decided to do a triple climb. One in New Mexico, One in Colorado and one in Utah! I am going solo alpine style. Sleeping in the truck and bouncing from state to state., I have already started packing my gear and I don't even leave until the 28th!

Love you all!

Mat

Sunday, December 9th, 2012

Namaste,

Good evening everyone.... I don't know how often I have told you guys, but I love you all! Just before posting this I looked at my stats and I have has 27,250 reads.... That means someone has logged onto this crazy story that is my life and read what is up with the Jones's over 27,000 times! CRAZY!!!!

OK.... Here we go with the past week... Our hospital has been maxed out for about three solid months, but last week we started picking up momentum on the nursing center. On the whole campus we usually see about 10 admissions.... Last week we processed 25! That is kicking butt and taking names! My new liaison Carol is picking it up very well, and Diane has been kicking tail. Not to brag but I brought in 12 patients on my own last week. My CEO, Chad Lovett calls me King Kong and I call him Godzilla. It's been a pretty darn good run this last couple months. I am adding another liaison next Monday, and I can focus on physician development and VACATION!

Vacation is coming up on the 28th, and the crazy thing is I have no idea what I want to do? I have looked at flying into San Diego, and driving up PCH to San Francisco.... Another Idea is to drive to Taos, New Mexico and climb Wheeler, then over to Estes Park, Colorado to climb Longs Peak, and then on over to Moab, Utah to climb Mt. Peal. That would be awesome. I looked at weather conditions and a couple would be pretty darn iffy this time of year. I did a climb one time that I named "When you balls are bigger than your brain!", so nothing is out of the question! The other thing I am checking into is flying to the Dominican Republic and doing some relief work in Hati for about 10 days. I will narrow down my options later in the week.

I am officially back in training! I went back to the boxing gym last Tuesday! My good friend and Muay Thai instructor Mike Giroux is teaching at Western Avenue Boxing Gym on Tuesday nights and I went to see what I was missing out on! When I left it was like I was on speed! I felt so alive! I sent Mike a message later in the week and he told me I looked really good for such a long lay off! (I think I even surprised myself!" It's funny another guy I use to box with text me earlier and said he watched the Marquez/Pac-Man fight last night and told me he wanted to punch me in the face! :-) It's on Tuesday night! I have my gear laid out for a good run in the morning! Gotta get that cardio back!

I spent most of the weekend Christmas Shopping! Yesterday I went to the Outlet Mall, and Bass Pro. Today I went to Wal*Mart, Gordmans, Best Buy and Sams. Then home for Sunday cleaning and I am currently cooking grilled salmon to put on-top of these beautiful salads I made. Dang... I am such a good wife!

Better get busy! Love you all!

Mat

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

Namaste,

Hope everyone is doing well? I have been busy as heck with work. I have two new liaison's and I started training one of them last week. She is going to be great! We are still bed locked at the hospital... This means that as soon as one patient discharges, we have several ready to come in. I have been shooting multiple times a week. A week ago, I had the blessing of shooting a miracle baby. This little guy was born 10 week premature, and only had a 10% chance of survival..... He is a growing little boy now, and WOW what a workout I got shooting him! I have mostly been doing families for Christmas cards, and then yesterday, I kidnapped a couple boys and shot them yesterday afternoon. I am going to frame a couple pic's for their mom for Christmas. She is my right hand at work, and I couldn't survive without her!

The Ray's came for Thanksgiving... We had a blast with them. I worked a couple hours Thanksgiving morning, and got to see the smiles on our long term care residents faces. I helped serve breakfast... It warmed my heart and I am going to try and do the same thing on Christmas morning. With my kids being older and not really into Santa.... It's time to do something for others!

In my last blog I talked about "If!" Last year I wrote about "Dash!" The dash in-between the day you are born, and the day you die. I have really been thinking about my dash.... I still am trying to figure out my dash.... That is what I am going to dedicate 2013 to. (That is if the Mayans were wrong!)

I will be honest and tell you with my new role of Mom, Dad & Maid (With Sherrie in school, clinical's and working) I have added about 40 pounds of goo! I started my road back to a medium shirt yesterday. I am going, burn more calories than I consume, and get back into the boxing ring. My Muay Thai instructor, and great friend Mike Giroux is going to help me get back where I was in the next 60 days! I am putting it here, so you all can hold me accountable! Yesterday I took the road bike to the lake and after about 2.5 miles I thought my lungs were going to explode. By mile 4.... I was back in the groove and riding 3 minute miles. I'm a little sore this morning but it feels good.

With the holiday's upon us.... Do something nice for someone. Go out of your way to help those with less, and be a blessing to someone who is not expecting it!

Love you all!

Mat

Thursday, November 22nd, 2012 Thanksgiving

Namaste,

Hello, everyone out there! Life continues to be very busy. Football season Finley ended last Friday night after a tough loss to Tulsa Union. I wish we were still in the chase for state, but I'm not gonna cry. Next year will be our year! We have most of our skill players back, and I really do expect us to win state next year! We had our freshman banquet a couple weeks ago. I made 16x20 action shot posters for all 65 players and all 20 cheerleaders.... That was one of the biggest project I have ever undertaken! I was really pleased with the way they came out.

Work has been extremely busy. We separated from one of our liaisons a couple weeks ago, so I have been covering the whole state except for Midwest City. I did interview and hire two new staff members last week. As soon as their background checks come back I can get them in training. Our hospital has been a capacity for two solid months, with a waiting list of 10.... That is awesome. We still have some beds available on the nursing center side of the building. My superstar Diane has been taking some time off recently, so I have been covering her as well.... Seriously don't know how we have stayed as full as we have.

I was having a conversation with our social worker yesterday.... We were taking about things that we had done in the past and somehow we got on the subject of "If"... I thought about it for a minute and went down the path of "If" is just the middle part of "Life!" What happens before is the "L" and what happens tomorrow is the "E"... What is left is "If"! What If" I had done it this way, or what "If" I had done it that way.... There is no way of knowing! We can't live in the "If" world... We need to live each day to it's fullest. Enjoy what we do, love like there is no tomorrow, and treat each other and everyone like we would want to be treated. "If" we did that.... The world would be a more beautiful place.

During these holidays, I seem to get a little sentimental.... I am really missing those who I have lost.... I want to encourage everyone who reads this blog to pick up the phone and call someone that you have not talked to in a while and just tell them how much you miss them and that they are special in some sort of way! You never know.... They may not be here tomorrow! Live everyday with love!

Love you all!

Mat

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

Namaste,

How is everybody doing? Again it is such a busy season... Football, work, house work, end of year banquets, etc. Several Mama Wolves and myself worked our tails off to put on the first ever Freshman Football banquet. What we ended up doing was having Fazoli's cater dinner, and we had several local restaurants donate desert and drinks. What I did for the banquett was print a 16x20 poster of all 65 boys in an action shot; as well as, a poster of all 20 cheerleaders.... I also did a 8x10 team photo, with a 16x20 autograph mat for the boys to sign. I framed them during the banquet and gave them to Coach Manning, and Coach Crosson. We won the District 6A-1 Championship, so we are moving forward in the playoffs. We played Putnam City North Friday Night, and beat them 35-12. This Friday night we play Tulsa Union. Union is one of the most storied programs in Oklahoma High School Football. It is pretty cool getting to be down on the field with the boys. The Touchdown Club President told me the other day that if we win state, I get a ring! I sure as heck didn't earn one in high school! I have been working about two or three hours a day on Megan's wedding pictures. The chapel was so dark that every image is taking 10 to 15 minutes. I took almost 1,000 images. I will really be happy when that project is done. Trey and I were blessed  by my great friend Clark yesterday.... He gave us two great seats to the OU/Baylor game and two tickets to the Sooner Club Tailgate. Holy crap.... 100 food vendors, 5 open bars and everything was free! The game was very slow! We left at the end of the third. We stopped at Rib Crib for dinner and made it home before the game was over. This week is going to be off the chain busy. Tomorrow night we have Trey's first orchestra concert and dinner, Thursday night we are going to the Edmond Police Department awards dinner. Friday night football! This weekend, I really have to do some home improvement projects. We have company coming in a couple of weeks and I need to clean carpets, replace some trim, and do some touch-up painting. This lawn needs some work also! I am attaching a video of my song of the week. It played on my play list the other morning when I was out driving around the lake looking for things to take pictures of. I have been singing it at the top of my lungs for the last several days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03cR1tAFSmQ

Love you all!

Mat

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012

Namaste,

Good Morning! Well freshman football season is over so we are down to one football game per week now. Our freshmen ended up with a 6-3 season, but if I were ever going to complain about anything it would be that this year the freshmen did not have a designated coach. The freshmen, JV, and the Varsity all practiced together. I think the freshmen got left out of a lot of basic drills, that they are going to need in the future. I coached many years ago, and there are fundamentals that have to be taught, re-taught, and the re-taught again! Anyway.... Our varsity had their final regular season game last night. We finished the regular season at 9-1 and won district 6A-1 championship. It was a great season, but we have FOUR more game to win to get the prize! We beat Choctaw last night 55-14. Last weekend was a blur... I had a wedding rehearsal at 4:00 Friday, then rehearsal dinner. The temperature fell into the 30's and I was in a dress shirt and jeans. Then I had to take Jordan home to Norman, so Friday was LONG. Saturday, Sherrie was off so we got up and did all of our shopping then lunch and off the the wedding chapel for the wedding. We got home at 11:00pm. I of course had to download all my pictures and scan through them. Sunday I slept in until 8:00am so I missed church. We shot senior pictures in Bricktown. They were fun.... It ended up being a family shoot, with all four kids, not just the two seniors. This week was unbelievably crazy! To keep our building full, we have to have 15 admits per week. That is between two liaisons and myself. Well.... We separated one of our liaisons, so between Diane and I we admitted 16 patients! HOLY CRAP. In addition to that I had the Oklahoma Hospital Association show on Thursday. What happened there..... We totally rocked the show! We had the "Party Booth!" It was a blast, and I made 100's of contacts! If you know anyone with a clinical background, and would love a challenging job, with a wonderful boss..... Send your resume to busdev@specialtyhospitalmidwestcity.com I am scheduling interviews next week. See there is one more job that President Obama has created! ;-) Please go vote this week, and remember for all of you ultra conservatives...... Jesus was a Lliberal Democrat. He gave everything he had, so you could have everything you need! Nuff Said!

Love you all!

Mat

Friday, October 26th 2012

Namaste,

Well.... It's been a couple of weeks, but everything is fine. Life is just really busy. Between work, football, photography and trying to take care of kid's the dog, lawn work, house work and everything else we are expected to do, there is just not much time for anything else. I am shooting the Santa Fe Freshmen and Varsity games so that is two nights a week. The funny thing is that's the kind of stuff that I love. The bigger problem with that is the quick turn around on the images to get them published in the program for the next game. If I sound like I'm whining.... Maybe a little, but I love it. I did send 74 images to print yesterday for the Freshman banquet. They wanted a action shot of each boy on the team and each member of the Pom and Cheer team.... That was quite a task! I also had the same project for all of the seniors on the Varsity squad. As football season is winding down.... Basketball season is starting. I sold my four Thunder season tickets this year... A couple reasons were Trey has two trips to Europe coming up, and I can get credentialed for most games so I would not be in my seats anyway! Did I mention that people are willing to pay crazy prices for tickets!!!!! Oh well.... Thanksgiving will be upon us before you know it, and then Christmas is right around  the corner. The other day it was in the nineties and then yesterday the bottom fell out, and winter is here. I just heard the heater kick on, and I plan on sleeping in the middle of the living room tonight with a fire going! I hope each and everyone of you who read this know how much I appreciate you!

Love you all!

Mat

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Namaste,

Hello everyone.... Been doing a lot of photography lately! Mainly Santa Fe Football; However, senior portraits and engagement season is coming up and everything is starting to get crazy! I work to pay the bills and shoot to live! That's just the way it is. I am on vacation this week. I was going to take Trey to New Mexico to climb Wheeler, but he has had football everyday.... Yes, they even practice on fall break! I have been sick for almost a week so traveling to altitude would not have been very smart. Yes, I realize I usually don't take advice from  people on what is "Smart" or "Wise", but in this case I listened. I did fall cleaning on the house yesterday. Dusted everything, mopped the floors, changed sheets..... The whole ball of wax. I shot the Edmond Santa Fe Vs. Lawton football game last night. Lawton was ranked #1 in the state last week, and we dominated them 68/28! If we continue to play like that we will be a force to recon with! I have so much I need to get accomplished this weekend. I want to re-sod the front lawn, I have three stumps that need ground down, and Trees pruned for the winter.... Guess how much of that will get done????? That's right.... Zero!

Love you all!


Mat